Chapter 12. Last Dance
1. A haunting snippet of the film is on file at the London Museum and Tea Room, New London, TX.
Chapter 13. 3:17 p.m.
1. Military Court of Inquiry Report, 311.
2. Jackson, Living Lessons, 41.
3. Ibid., 53; Steve Blow, “A Lost Generation,” Dallas Morning News, March 1, 1987, story about the fiftieth anniversary of the explosion quoting Helen (Beard) Sillick.
4. Clipping in the Evans scrapbook, Dallas Times-Herald, March 19, 1937, 2.
5. Jackson, Living Lessons, 49.
6. “Boy Tells Of School Blast,” Tyler Courier-Times, March 19, 1937, front page.
7. Jackson, Living Lessons, 43; the lesson page with Juanita Gibson’s broken circle is displayed in a frame at the London Museum and Tea Room.
8. Steve Blow, “A Lost Generation,” Dallas Morning News, March 1, 1987; also, Joe King describes his experience in great detail in Janice Talley Marsh, “Learning From Disaster,” Tyler Life, March 1985.
9. “Teacher Saves 95 By Having Pupils Hide Under Desk,” clipping in Mother Frances Hospital Memory Book, a scrapbook of newspaper clippings the sisters collected as a remembrance of the disaster and the opening of the hospital. It is kept in the hospital’s archives.
10. Jackson, Living Lessons, 52; Kenneth Dean, “68th Anniversary Stirs Memories of Tragedy,” Tyler Morning Telegraph, March 18, 2005, front page.
11. Military Court of Inquiry Report, 151.
12. “Sisters Helen Sillick and Marie Challis Remember Tragedy,” special supplement, Overton Press, March 13, 1997.
13. Herald-Examiner (Chicago), undated clipping from news coverage immediately following the explosion, in Carroll and Mildred Evans’s scrapbook.
14. “Jests of Cut-ups Stopped By Blast, Lucky Girl Avers,” Dallas Morning News, March 22, 1937.
15. Bright, New London 1937, 36–40.
16. Undated Henderson Daily News clipping from news coverage immediately following the explosion, with Cletis Wells recounting her story, Carroll and Mildred Evans’s scrapbook.
17. “Men, Trucks, Supplies, and Food Rushed To Scene of Explosion After Calls Made Over Radio,” Kilgore Daily News, March 19, 1937; Jackson, Living Lessons, 40.
18. Jackson, Living Lessons, 42.
19. “Boy Tells Of School Blast,” Tyler Courier-Times, March 19, 1937.
20. Jackson, Living Lessons, 39
21. Associated Press dispatch reviewing the New London school explosion , October 20, 1985.
22. Undated clipping in scrapbook of newspaper coverage immediately following the disaster, on file in the library at West Rusk High School.
23. Jackson, Living Lessons, 50.
24. J. B. Dial’s super feat of strength, moving a slab of concrete to let a child escape, was among numerous reports of adrenaline-driven feats that became legendary over the years since the explosion. Some undoubtedly happened; others may have been exaggerations or the product of excited imaginations. We let the story of J. B. Dial’s Herculean show of strength stand because it seems logical; he was a powerful roughneck frantically searching for his sons under the rubble.
25. Military Court of Inquiry Report, 141.
Chapter 14. Thunder on a Clear Day
1. Jackson typically dressed in a coat and tie and frequently wore a white fedora; it is speculation he was wearing the hat when the school exploded, but it seems like a good guess. As near as he was to the school, the percussion from the blast almost certainly would have sent the fedora sailing.
2. Believe It Or Not, London (TX) Times, November 13, 1937.
3. London School Notes, Henderson Daily News, November 24, 1936.
4. Mrs. Bud Sanders, “Lest We Forget,” Kilgore News Herald, March 18, 1970, front page, an anniversary story about the explosion.
5. Bright, New London 1937, 57.
6. William T. Rives, Associated Press story, March 19, 1937, 17.
7. Jackson, Living Lessons, 62–63.
Chapter 15. Newshounds
1. United Press wire dispatch, March 18, 1937. This was prior to a merger that changed the wire service’s name to United Press International.
2. “Girl Killed in Subway Leap,” New York Times, March 19, 1937. The woman, Betty Schwartz, a twenty-one-year-old stenographer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had lived in New York one week before jumping in front of the subway train. She died at Bellevue Hospital a few minutes before the New London school explosion in Texas.
3. Henry McLemore, “Today’s Sports Parade,” United Press column, March 18, 1937.
4. Sarah McClendon, My Eight Presidents (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978), 13.
5. Sarah McClendon, Mr. President, Mr. President! My Fifty Years of Covering the White House, with Jules Minton (Los Angeles, CA: General Publishing Group, 1996), 126, 127.
Chapter 16. Holy Sisters
1. “New Hospital In City Seen As Big Move To Progress,” Tyler Morning Telegraph, March 19, 1937, report on Rotary luncheon.
2. C. C. McDonald, Medicine in Our Town (Fort Worth, TX: Branch-Smith, 1975), 25. Unless otherwise noted, quotes and biographical information about C. C. McDonald in this chapter are from this memoir.
3. Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, “God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways,” Refections (newsletter) 18, no. 4 (October 1996).
4. Mother Frances Hospital, special section, Tyler Courier-Times, March 14, 1937.
5. Sisters of the Holy Family, “God’s Ways.”
6. Ibid.
Chapter 17. Radio Man
1. Ted Hudson’s profile is based on an interview with Mary Lou (Hudson) Powell, his daughter, newspaper clippings about his work in the rescue operation, an article in the national Kiwanis magazine in June after the New London explosion detailing his activities at the disaster site, a synopsis of his life in one book, a news story about his death, and his obituary.
2. Wecter, Age of the Great Depression, 229–31.
3. “Radio: NBC is 10 Years Old,” Life, November 23, 1936.
4. Vincent Terrace, Radio’s Golden Years: The Encyclopedia of Radio Programs 1930–1960 (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1981), 167.
5. Ibid., 216.
6. Garland R. Farmer, The Realm of Rusk County (Henderson, TX: Henderson Times, 1951), 140.
7. “Ted Hudson, Les Dublin Killed by Plane Crash near Corsicana,” Henderson Daily News, November 25, 1946.
8. Radio station KOCA network programming schedule for March 18, 1937, Kilgore Daily News, March 18, 1937, was used to note what was on the air at various times as Hudson’s day progressed.
Chapter 18. Into the Ruins
1. E. D. Powell, “Father of Two Blast Victims Says World War Horrors Are Nothing Compared to Explosion,” International News Services, reprinted in London Museum and Tea Room souvenir edition by the Overton Press, March 1997.
2. “One of First To Reach Scene Finds his own Tot,” wire dispatch, Charleston Gazette, March 19, 1937.
3. “Sillick and Challis Remember Tragedy,” Overton Press.
4. “Three-Day Quest for Missing School Girl Ends at Hospital, When Inez Herron, 12, Speaks,” unmarked newspaper clipping (probably from Tyler Morning Telegraph or Tyler Courier-Times ), March 23, 1937, in “Memory Book March 1937–August 1949,” Mother Frances Hospital, Tyler, TX.
5. “Sight of Victims Kills Arp Man 63,” United Press dispatch, March 18, 1937, reprinted in London Museum and Tea Room souvenir edition of Henderson Daily News.
6. Marsh, “Learning from Disaster,” 26; Jackson, Living Lessons, 53.
7. Jackson, Living Lessons, 49.
8. Price interview.
9. Ibid.
Chapter 19. Newsflash
1. Segments involving Felix McKnight, including his quotes and the quotes from people McKnight spoke with, are derived from an interview with McKnight conducted by David M. Brown, November 20, 1990, unless otherwise explained in an endnote. The exact wording of his first short newsflash about the explos
ion was not located in our research; the version here is based on McKnight’s memory of what he wrote.
2. Walter Cronkite, interview by KHOU-TV, Houston, TX, March 1987. This was a special program about the explosion broadcast for the fiftieth anniversary of the tragedy.
3. Don Douglass, “A Kiwanian Broadcasts London, Texas, Tragedy,” Kiwanis, June 1937, 348.
4. “Henry McLemore, Former Columnist,” New York Times, June 24, 1968, obituary.
5. Henry McLemore, “McLemore Uses Old Speakeasy Card at Berlin and It Takes Him Inside of Dressing Room,” United Press sports column, Kilgore Daily News, August 4, 1936, 8.
6. Henry McLemore, “McLemore Finds That Prague Taxi Drivers Make American Speedsters Look Like ‘Pikers,’” United Press sports column, Kilgore Daily News, August 25, 1936, 7.
7. Henry McLemore, “Today’s Sports Parade,” United Press sports column, Reading Eagle, January 9, 1937.
8. Henry McLemore, “McLemore Tries His Hand At Art of Mountain Climbing But Quits After No St. Bernards Answer His Calls,” United Press column, Kilgore Daily News, September 2, 1936, 10.
9. McLemore, “Today’s Sports Parade.”
10. Walter Cronkite notes McLemore was instructed to bring extra shirts in Walter Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996), 65.
11. Ibid., 63.
12. Ibid., 61.
13. McClendon, Mr. President, Mr. President!, 127.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. William T. Rives quote, AP 28, Writings about the Associated Press, Series IV, Reporters’ Recollections, Oliver Gramling Commissions, AP Corporate Archives, New York, NY.
17. Ibid.
18. Felix McKnight quote in ibid.
Chapter 20. A Blue Patch of Sky
1. Carroll Evans, interview in The Day a Generation Died, directed by Jerry Gumbert, KLTV-TV, Tyler, TX, March 1987. This documentary was filmed and broadcast for the fiftieth anniversary of the disaster.
2. Evans, “Carroll and Mildred Evans,” 37–38.
3. “Three-Day Quest.”
4. Price interview.
5. Ibid.
6. Letter from Jewel Lewis about her uncle and his son finding Queen Price, on file at the London Museum and Tea Room, New London, TX.
7. Charlotte Heldenbrand, “Family Torn by Young Son’s Death,” Overton Press, March 12, 2009, reprint of a story that originally appeared in the Overton Press on March 14, 2002.
Chapter 21. Valley of Death at Sundown
1. Frei, unpublished memoir.
2. “Call National Guard To Take Charge At Blast,” Associated Press, Tyler Courier-Times, March 19, 1937.
3. Walter Cronkite, interview in Gumbert, The Day a Generation Died.
4. Ibid.
Chapter 22. Mother Frances
1. Jeannette Freeman Martin, interview by the authors, September 29, 2011.
2. Rhiannon Meyers, “A Day Before Opening, Mother Frances Hospital ‘Was a Miracle,’” Tyler Morning Telegraph, March 18, 2007.
3. Charlotte Heldenbrand, “Schoolmates Emerge from Blast Rubble to Become Soulmates,” Overton Press, March 15, 2007.
4. Frei, unpublished memoir.
5. McKnight quote, AP 28 Writings about the Associated Press, Series IV.
6. Ibid.
7. McKnight’s dialogue with the phone operator is based on a combination of details from the interview he gave for this book and information in his AP notes in ibid.
8. Sisters of the Holy Family, “God’s Ways.”
9. McClendon, Mr. President, Mr. President!, 127.
10. Martha Harris, Associated Press dispatch, March 18, 1937.
11. Charlie Clair, United Press dispatch, March 18, 1937.
12. Heldenbrand, “Family Torn by Young Son’s Death.”
13. McKnight quote, AP 28 Writings about The Associated Press, Series IV.
14. Hudson segment, not knowing he was on national hookup, Don Douglass, “A Kiwanian Broadcasts London, Texas, Tragedy,” Kiwanis, June 1937, 348.
15. “Mrs. Roosevelt Says ‘Something Must Be Done,’” Tyler Courier-Times, March 19, 1937.
16. Heldenbrand, “Family Torn,” 2002.
17. “Six Injured in Hospitals Here May Die,” Tyler Courier-Times, March 19, 1937. The article includes a list of patients at Mother Frances Hospital and their conditions.
Chapter 23. Midnight of the Soul
1. McKnight, Associated Press dispatch, March 18, 1937.
2. Tom Reynolds, “Rain Steadily Beats Down On Scene Of Blast,” United Press dispatch, March 19, 1937; clipping in Mother Frances Hospital “Memory Book,” without note of specific newspaper.
3. Associated Press dispatch, March 19, 1937.
4. Associated Press, “Arms Clasped, Two Children Are Found Alive In Blast Ruins,” Daily Herald (Big Springs, Texas), March 20, 1937.
5. William T. Rives, Associated Press dispatch, March 18, 1937.
6. “Blast Cleans Human Bones,” Tyler Courier-Times, March 19, 1937.
7. William T. Rives, Associated Press dispatch, March 18, 1937.
8. Miscellaneous news article, apparently clipped from Henderson Daily News, March 19, 1937, reprinted by the London Museum and Tea Room.
9. Dallas Times Herald, March 19, 1937, clipping in Evans’s scrapbook without headline or byline.
10. William T. Rives, Associated Press dispatch, March 18, 1937.
11. Jan Isbell Fortune, “Mass Burials Set for 300 Children in Rusk,” Henderson Daily News, March 19, 1937.
12. Henderson Daily News, March 19, 1937, a list with descriptions of dead children, their clothes, etc., to help identify them, as sidebar to main front-page story.
13. Overton morgue quote from clipping in the Evans’s scrapbook, dated but without a title, Herald-Examiner (Chicago), March 20, 1937.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Henry McLemore, “McLemore Writes of London Blast and Experiences,” Henderson Daily News, March 19, 1937. McLemore began the piece he wrote with hearing about the woman on the radio.
17. Evans, “Carroll and Mildred Evans,” 37–38.
18. London School Notes, Henderson Daily News, November 24, 1936.
19. Joe Davidson’s comment was widely reported in local newspapers and by the wire services.
20. Jackson, Living Lessons, 54.
21. Associated Press, “700 Children Thought Dead as Blast Razes Rusk County School Building,” Dallas Morning News, March 19, 1937.
22. Our research indicated McLemore had never covered any story of this magnitude, nor anything as tragic.
23. Davidson’s comments were widely reported.
Chapter 24. Dawn, March 19
1. Jimmie Donahue, “Grief-Stricken Mothers Carry on Ceaseless Search For Children,” Tyler Courier-Times, March 19, 1937, front page.
2. Clipping in Evans’s scrapbook without headline or byline, Dallas Times-Herald, March 19, 1937, 2.
3. Pat McNealy Barnes, Houston Post, March 20, 1937.
4. An Associated Press dispatch on March 19, 1937, reported Wesley H. Pitken, a thirty-eight-year-old oil-field worker in the Raccoon Bend oil field, “became demented” while listening to coverage of the New London school explosion on the radio and held a loaded double-barrel shotgun on his family, while threatening to kill them and himself.
5. Steve Blow, “A Generation Lost,” Dallas Morning News, March 1, 1987.
6. Clipping in Evans’s scrapbook, missing headline and with no byline, Dallas Times Herald, March 19, 1937.
Chapter 25. Hard News
1. “Raymond Meissner, Embalmer, Helps at New London Disaster,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, undated newspaper clipping (clearly published soon after the explosion). The article detailed Meissner’s experience and included copious quotes from him.
2. William T. Rives notes, AP 28 Writings about the Associated Press, Series IV.
3. Henry McLemore, “McLemore Writes of Blast and Experiences,” United Press dispat
ch, Henderson Daily News, March 20, 1937.
4. Charles Saulsberry, “Spectators Sickened as Shattered Bodies are Removed in Baskets,” Dallas Morning News, March 20, 1937.
5. Walter Cronkite, “Bereaved Parents Cling To Fragile Threads Of Hope,” United Press dispatch, March 19, 1937, clipping in Mother Frances Hospital archival “Memory Book” of newspaper coverage collected mainly from the Henderson Daily News, Kilgore Daily News, Tyler Morning-Courier, and Dallas Morning News. The Cronkite clipping does not have a notation of which newspaper it was from.
6. Associated Press, “Pathos and Tragedy.”
7. The scene is based on a detailed schedule of events for the Camp-O-Ral, “200 Boy Scouts Expected To Take Part in Camp-O-Ral,” Henderson Daily News, May 17, 1935, 7.
8. Sarah McClendon, “Helpers at First-Aid Station Are Dead Tired as They Round Up 20 Hours on Duty,” Tyler Courier-Times, March 19, 1937.
9. Associated Press, “Gruesome Task of Diggers is Ended,” Ironwood (MI) Daily Globe, March 19, 1937.
10. John Mortimer, Houston Post, March 20, 1937, an article contained in the Evans’s scrapbook without a headline.
11. An Associated Press dispatch, March 19, 1937, included the quotes Rives overheard.
12. Henry McLemore, “‘Richest Little Town’ Poorest After Tragedy,” United Press dispatch, The Salt Lake Tribune, March 20, 1937.
13. Frei, unpublished memoir.
Chapter 26. Coffin Train
1. An Associated Press correction dated March 20, 1937, said Alma Stroud and her daughter Helen were not dead, as widely reported the day before; even so, the dramatic tale of a mother dropping dead upon finding the body of her child became urban legend in East Texas and is often repeated to this day.
2. Henry McLemore, “Henry McLemore Describes Terrible Carnage Of Blast; Noted Sports Writer Dips Pen in Different Color of Ink to Give Unusual Story of Tragedy,” United Press dispatch, Henderson Daily News, March 20, 1937.
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