Gainesville, GA Tornado, Apr 1936 - mother and child reunited

Regaining Child Comforts Storm Widowed Cripple

ATLANTA, April 30. (AP)-Baby talk of a blonde waif of the Gainesville tornado, whose cheery smile drew 100 offers of adoption, comforted her maimed and widowed mother, MRS. DOROTHY TUMLIN, in a hospital here today.

"God bless her," cried MRS. TUMLIN, 38 year old mill worker whose right leg was crushed in the catastrope of April 6. "We'll stay together."

The blue-eyed child, FRANCES, gurgled and chatted in the fashion in the fashion that made her the idol of the Piedmont hospital staff.

Less than three years old, she had recovered from an abdominal injury which caused her to be hurried, nameless, to Atlanta by a rescue train soon after the twister struck the north Georgia city.

The mother was placed by the Red Cross in another hospital, where she was unconscious for a week. The child was known only by a number.

Newspaper photographs helped to bring them together and also brought inquiries concerning adoption from couples in many cities.

"Give up my baby?" mused MRS. TUMLIN. "I wouldn't think of it. It may mean poverty for both of us, but she's mine and it's God's will for a mother to have her own daughter."

The reunion with Frances was a welcome change for MRS. TUMLIN after a series of blows.

Physicians were forced to amputate her right leg. A few days later she was told the factory in which she had worked was blown away and her home destroyed. Only yesterday was she told that her husband two other children was among the 205 persons killed.

"We'll live with my father in Gainesville," she said.

The Dothan Eagle, Dothan, AL 30 Apr 1936