Turley, Pawhuska, Childsville, OK Tornado Damage, May 1942

I am so very grateful that you posted the article about mrs. othol spence. I am helping my neice from a previous marriage to find her mothers side of the family. Nellie faye Spence (Mrs. Othol Spence ) is her grandmother. We were trying to find out about another daughter that she had,but did not know her name. That article was the only place that the name Mary has come up. Thank you so very much!

you are very very welcome .. responses like yours are very rewarding to me ..
sincerely
Stu

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!

I thank you for this story. My dad lived it. That tornado changed his life. He was 12 years old and as was the usual he had gone in to the movie theatre. The sky was looking pretty bad so my grandmom drove into town to get him. As they were returning home to Lynne Addition they saw the tornado come over the mountain and destroy everthing in it's path including their home and grocery store/gas station. My grandma continued on toward her house and there were people hurt everywhere. My dad remembers seeing straw driven into wood like it was a nail. Coming up the road was my grandfather. He had been hit in the chest by a refrigerator. My grandma got him in the car and rushed to the hospital. People were coming in from all over, injured. The people at the hospital asked my grandmother to stay and help and she told them she had her son and had to take care of him. There was a couple there and she had never met them before and they offered to take my dad to their house and they did. He stayed there a couple of days until things calmed down a bit. My grandfathers lively hood was gone. Their house was gone. My grandmothers brother had moved to Oregon to work in the shipyards and he told my grandfather he could get work there so they took what little they could find and left Pawhuska for good. My dad left behind his school and his friends and the only life he had known for 12 years. He told us the story many times. It really affected him and he never got over it. His dad only lived another 10 years and it was thought that the damage the refrigerator did when it slammed into to him was the reason he died at such an early age. I was sent pictures of the damage by a distant aunt and it is horrible to see.