I wrote a blog about the deadly tornado that destroyed Judsonia Arkansas in 1952. I received email from a lady who survived that tornado. At the time of the blog she was battling water in her basement from a flood where she now lives. But she promised to write down her memories of the tornado and get them to me. Yesterday she did that. This is the most vivid story of a survivor. I left it as she wrote it and if you don't have time to read it right now, bookmark it and come back because it's a very well-written memory from Oleta Brill, telling how she survived and what it was like. I'm enclosing the photos of the damage and the present day photo of the mansion that she refers to.
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As a girl I remember Johnnie Henson as a gray haired thin man, I only seen him crossing the street in town and at the 4Th July celebration. Hob nobbing with the town leaders. I think he lived alone in the "Big House" we did not know the word mansion. We were always very quiet when passing the house and tried to sneak a look into the back yard. It was walled in. I think I remember seeing a gardener or two and a housekeeper. My family moved in 1960 and somewhere in the years we had heard Mr. Henson had passed away in Little Rock.
THE TORNADO I REMEMBER - - I still get confused as to the date of the tornado, somewhere I had read March 20, 1952, but had recorded it as March 21, 1952 on a Friday. Two months and one week before my 9th birthday.
That day started in my memory in the afternoon, my twin sister and I were hurrying home from school. We were very excited about going to the movie house that night, a Roy Rogers and Dale Evans movie was to be showed and even more excited about going to Aunt Betie's for Sunday dinner. She was Mom's Aunt on her father's side. Never married, living with Aunt Alley and Aunt Gerogia. It was always an adventure to to their house, about a mile west, through the woods across a creek and seemed a long climb up a hill to their old fashioned two-storied house. It has a street name now. It was on the corner of W 8th St and Varnell St.
We lived on Haseltine St. There were no official street names in 1952 that I knew of, everybody had a Box or General Delivery number at the Post Office. The main drag was Highway 385, our town was by passed when Highway 367 was built, but the Greyhound bus still came through.
My Mother and younger sister were not at home (my younger sister would attend 1st grade next August, as there was no pre-school or kindergarten, she was still at home) My sister and I decided that they had gone to town, we loved to go to town, so off we went by the back street.
Our street Haseltine and Depot Main St. which ran in back of the Henson mansion. The main street Van Buren and Judson St ran in the middle of town. Why? we chose to go the back street, I don't remember. We ran most of the way, to the furthest end and worked our way back through town. The Stevenson's Feed Store, Mr. Bartell's general store )I think he was there at that time, maybe not.) We stopped and chatted with Jeanette Waller a classmate in front of her parent's fruit and vegetables store.
She begged us to stay at the store and play because it was getting dark even though it was about 5:15 p.m. and about to rain. We said "No", Mom didn't know where we were and we thought we could catch up with her and my sister. So, we left in a hurry. It wasn't cold, kind of warm and humid.
We started to run and took the corner at the King's house (Van Buren and 8th St) to the street that led to our house. We saw Mom standing in the back doorway waving and encouraging us to hurry, it was beginning to rain. The West sky was black and as we ran, raindrops were splattering in the dust on the road. I had never seen such big drops, to an 8 year old they seemed as big as saucers.
We thought about cutting across Mr. Little's yard, (he was so fussy) but we didn't, we ran to the end of the road and turned towards our house. As we entered the door it started pouring. Mom was upset and scolded us for going to town, at the same time it grew pitch black. Mom lit a candle.
The wind and rain hit the house so hard and loud that we couldn't hear each other. We four stood together by a kitchen buffet. The table started to dance up and down and the candle toppled over and went out. I had an odd feeling and looked up at Mom and said, even though she couldn't hear me, "It's a tornado".
A newspaper picture of where a tornado had hit a town flashed through my mind. Suddenly, everything seemed to move in slow motion, the roof left the house and the rain and wind came in, we were drenched. The noise was so loud we couldn't hear it, but felt it. A great source of vibration and pressure was all around us. I understand what some have said about a freight train running beside you.
In our fright, we eased our way into a small hallway off the kitchen leading into a bedroom. We stopped there, huddling together by Mom's wringer washing machine.
Then the house seemed to explode and crumble around us. It was blown about 30
feet into our garden in one big broken heap, with us in it. And then ..... Nothing.
Our minds shut down our bodies, we blacked out. I woke up from driven rain coming through a crack, it felt like cold ice pellets on my face. I heard Mom telling my younger sister to quit hollering, she said she thought that I and my sister were dead. We were all laying in a row with the wringer washer machine on it's side at our head. Mom then my younger sister, my other sister and then myself.
My sister and I answered her, she then started kicking the sheet rock that was piled on top of us. It and the washer machine is what probably saved us. We climbed out in a downpour, you could barely see anything and it wasn't dark anymore, just white.
We ran across the yard, the ground had turned to mud, Mom was guiding us around electrical wires to Mr. Little's, whose house lost part of the roof and some windows. As we ran I think I saw our neighbors across the street Mr. and Mrs Rudd sitting in their car. Someone may have told me that, I don't know.
We stayed at Mr. Little's house. Through out the night, people were coming and going. Some asked if everyone was O.K. and others were looking for someone.
During the night several tornadoes went over 3 or 4, maybe just bad thunder storms. I heard people talking. It was so spooky the electricity had been destroyed and there was only a candle or two illuminating people in that front living room, moving around, whispering, trying to sleep till morning.
It seemed like ages before morning and when it did it was a gray day, I looked out towards the Baptist Church wondering why it was lopsided, with a lot of stones surrounding it. The steeple had come down.
I don't remember if my Grandma had made it to Mr. Little's, for she always came to our house when it stormed. That day someone came and took my sisters and I away in a car. As we went by several houses, we could see them ripped apart. One of my Aunt's brothers had taken us to her Mother's house in Searcy. We were in a daze and my Aunt's brother tried to talk to us and get us to eat something, but we were too stunned by all that had happen.
Mom came and took us to a place set up as a temporary morgue to see our Aunt Bertie, my Great Aunt. She had been crushed to death by a brick chimney coming in on her bed. She lived about 1 mile west of us. I often wondered if at the time my sister and I were entering our house, was she already dead from the the tornado.
When we entered the morgue, the director took us through a room of people laid out on tables, in various stages of dress or covered with a sheet. We walked pass Jeanette, she was fully dressed, a block under her head, her hair was in pin curls. Next to her was her father on a table, the director quickly pulled the sheet over him, saying that he was not dressed yet. Jeanette died during the storm in her father's arms.
Her Mother was holding her brother, she talked to her husband until he too died. What would of happened if my sister and I had stayed in their store until the storm had passed? Mom was devastated, that we girls saw Jeanette, but it didn't bother me, it looked like she was sleeping.
Aunt Bertie was buried a few days later, it poured that day, Mom asked us if we wanted to go to her funeral, we said "No". I think we didn't realize what a funeral was. All funerals were by the grave sites, no church. A lot of people were buried that day in the Evergreen Cemetery. Coffins were lower in graves full of water, it kept raining for days.
I don't remember much after that, it was fast forward to Jacksonville, were we took a house to live in, till Daddy could rebuild our house. Funny, the first house Daddy built took him about 9 months and it took the tornado 9 seconds to destroy it. I remember seeing our house after the storm, it had been swept off its foundation and thrown into our garden in one big heap.
I do remember seeing the toilet bowl still intact, nothing else was left. How did we survive that without a scratch? I take that back, I had a cut on my wrist, I still carry a small scar there. I don't know if any of my family had cuts or scratches. Did we have Christmas in Jacksonville???
The stories we heard years after, some were true. Eddie Chapman had been ripped from his Grandmother's arms, sucked out through the roof and was found dead in the street. His father was a bitter man after that.
Our Grandmother had her piano bounce off her head, injuring her.
My Aunt Lillian had to hold her son's forehead together, a piece of tin off their roof had hit him.
One of the neighbors had been blown from her house to the top of King's two story house, she was clutching her baby granddaughter.
One of my Uncle's classmates was crushed to death in his car, he had parked in front of the Nehi bottling company. He was on his way to a dance at school that my Uncle was planning to attend.
To revisit Judsonia now in the 2000s brings a lot of memories and flashbacks. There is still evidence of the storm, some homes and stores were not rebuilt. I will always remember the trees lining the main street, forming a canopy. How a tornado can change people's lives, even their destinies.
