P
alm
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unday
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ornadoes
| 50
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The Goshen News Saturday, April 11, 2015 |
9
LBJ Visits Elkhart County
On Tour Of Disaster Areas
By BILL SHEFFER
The motorcade came
from the south across the
New York Central Railroad
tracks on County Road 13
(Lewis Street) north of Dun-
lap and drew to a stop in the
heart of what was once the
Sunnyside Addition.
President Lyndon B.
Johnson climbed out of a
black limousine and was
confronted with a scene
of utter devastation that
reached as far as the eye
could see in all directions.
The tall Texan in the
slightly rumpled black suit,
dark tie and oxfords strode
to the shell of a house where
Dorothy Warner, a widow,
once lived. His expression
of sadness did not change.
Secret
Servicemen
battled to keep a horde
of photographers back as
President Johnson stepped
through the rubble and
walked under a section of
the shattered house, which
had been twisted off its foun-
dation and carried 50 feet to
the edge of Lewis Street.
Home canned peaches,
cherries, green beans and
beets were still in the cellar.
One not there
Neither Mrs. Warner nor
her four-year-old grandson,
Eldon, were there to meet
the President. She suffered
a concussion and other se-
rious injuries. They found
little Eldon under rubble ...
two hours after the second
of the twin twisters ripped
devastated Dunlap.
The bareheaded presi-
dent, easy to follow because
of his height, picked his way
through scattered concrete
blocks and splintered lum-
ber to where an American
flag fluttered from a jagged,
upright board.
The president stood be-
side the flag. This had once
been the First General Bap-
tist Church of Sunnyside.
Directly across the way
was the ruins of Sunnyside
Mennonite Church ... it was
gone, too.
“I’m sorry to have to meet
you like this,” President
Johnson said, shaking hands
with an elderly couple, Mr.
and Mrs. Hardy Laird.
“How long had you folks
lived here?” the president
asked.
Mrs. Laird pointed to the
west and said, “We lived
at 1819 Sunnyside for 20
years.” There was nothing
there but ruins stretching
to U.S. 33. She thanked the
president.
Carl Sharkey talked to
the president. Seventeen
persons, including three
strangers, took shelter in
the basement of Sharkey’s
house. The tornado tore the
house away, the sub floor fell
downward ... but all lived.
He’ll rebuild
Sharkey looked the presi-
dent in the eye and said.” “I
built here in ’39. I’m going to
rebuild.”
Two tiny tornado survi-
vors, Kari Sharkey, 2, and
brother Randy, 4, were with
their mother when the presi-
dent took time in his tour to
hand them each gold pins.
The pins were in the form of
letters L B J. Kari’s birthday
is next Monday.
“I touched the president,”
exclaimed a young girl.
Secret Service agents,
who rode in a closed car and
convertible flanking the lim-
ousine carrying the presi-
dent, had almost more than
they could handle. It wasn’t
the tornado survivors, vol-
unteer workers or children,
it was from the galloping
photographers.
“Hey, trooper! Trooper.
Get down,” yelled one pho-
tographer in a loud voice
while the president was talk-
ing to some disaster victims.
The president turned and
regarded the photographer
in a manner chiding him for
bad behavior. “The Trooper”
was Sheriff Woody L. Caton.
U.S. Senators Birch Bayh
and Vance Hartke and Con-
gressman John Brademas
toured the stricken areas
with the president.
Fondles dogs
Just before leaving the
president fondled the ears
of a pair of dachshunds, held
by Joy Parsons, aged 8, and
another girl named Bonnie.
Then the president’s mo-
torcade, which included
four big buses filled with
correspondents,
drove
north and circled around to
the disaster headquarters
at the Concord Fire Depart-
ment.
Sheriff Caton met Presi-
dent Johnson and intro-
duced him to workers, vol-
unteers, officials and others
at the fire station.
The president talked with
many persons and stopped
at a food counter for a cup
of coffee and a doughnut.
Several of the women at the
counter had been bruised in
the tornado. The president
asked if their injuries were
sustained in the tornado and
complimented them on the
work they were doing. He
spent about 15 minutes at
the station in casual conver-
sation.
President Johnson ex-
pressed his sadness “over
what has happened to the
good people of this area” af-
ter a fast tour of inspection
in Elkhart County.
“We plan to do all we can
to help,” the President said
when slowed down briefly
by a television commentator
at South Bend.
“Does this mean we’ll get
federal aid?” the President
was asked.
“It does,” was the chief
executive’s reply as he
moved on toward his plane
for a flying trip over Illinois
and on to Minnesota for a
touch-down of his plane and
another motorcade through
flood-stricken areas.
The
motorcade
was
scheduled to go to Midway
Mobile Home Court and
hundreds of Dunlap resi-
dents lining the road and at
the park were disappointed
when it turned and streaked
through Elkhart to the
Northern Indiana Toll Road,
South Bend and the airport.
This was the day that a
president came to Dunlap
to tour a tornado stricken
area. Hundreds of law en-
forcement officers breathed
a sigh of relief. The task of
guarding a president isn’t
easy — the secret service-
men usually go into an area
where the president is going
to appear two weeks ahead
of time.
From the archive
Editor’s note
Reprinted from the April 14,
1965 edition of The Goshen
News.
‘It Is Sad’ Remarks President Following
Motorcade From South Bend Through
Area Hardest Hit By Tornadoes
Goshen News file photos
President Lyndon B. Johnson
solemnly
stands amidst the ruins of what was once the First
General Baptist Church of Sunnyside. The Ameri-
can flag (top photo) was snagged on a jagged board.
From this vantage point the area was a scene of utter
devastation as far as the eye could see. The tornado
claimed 48 Elkhart County lives, injured countless
others and wiped out nearly 500 homes.
From the archive
Over 20 persons, and
probably more, were fatally
injured Sunday night when a
tornado cut across the west
and north edges of Dunlap,
causing heavy property loss.
The twister was the second
in the area and arrived about
7:15, an hour after an earlier
storm had ripped through
the Midway Trailer Court
and the Jefferson Place Sub-
division.
The News was unable to
get identification of the dead
today at Elkhart’s Pierre
Moran school where a tem-
porary morgue was set up
last night. Only three of 19
bodies had been identified
this morning, it was learned
unofficially.
Telephone communication
between Goshen and Elkhart
was out and a News reporter
at the scene this morning
was unable to get the iden-
tifications. A list of patients
admitted to Elkhart General
Hospital appears elsewhere
in today’s News.
Homes destroyed
The twister at Dunlap
dipped down west of the com-
munity, ripping down three
new homes just constructed
by Donald Goodenough and
Herbert Bowers of Goshen. It
also damaged an older home
at the new subdivision along
C.R. 20.
The twister, in full view of
more than 100 volunteers
clearing debris at the ravaged
Midway Trailer Court, cut
across the west side of Dun-
lap in a northeasterly direc-
tion and cleaned out an area
of new businesses along U.S.
33. Then it dealt a killing blow
to the Sunnyside Addition at
the north edge of Dunlap as
it swept for several blocks
across the residential area
(see aerial photo elsewhere).
See it coming
Don Runnion, a seventh
grader and son of Mr. and
Mrs. Robert Runnion, said he
was at home with his brother,
Mike, and parents when they
spotted the approaching
twister. They didn’t have time
to get to the basement and
laid on the kitchen floor. The
Runnion boy said “everything
got dusty.” When the storm
ended, the Runnion family’s
home was in ruins and the
family was lying in debris.
Mrs. Runnion was seriously
injured and Mr. Runnion and
the boys carried her several
blocks to a main highway
and she was taken to Elkhart
General Hospital.
The nearby home of Mrs.
Marie Eads, who lives with
her four children, was badly
wrecked.
Ernest Struble, who lives
on C.R. 13 at the housing ad-
dition, saw the twister coming
and went to the basement.
He was home alone but was
joined by some passersby
just as the storm hit. After the
twister departed, the Struble
home was gone and the 1965
Plymouth Struble got last Fri-
day was in the basement. All
were unhurt. Struble said the
storm “really rumbled” as it
arrived.
The first official word of
last night’s twister came
when a hysterical mother no-
tified Concord fireman Don
Singleton that her house was
afire. Firemen then got many
other calls.
Joe Classon, Oslo Town-
ship fire chief, is still hospi-
talized at Elkhart today with
injuries sufferedwhen he was
picked up by the twister in
the Dunlap area and thrown
to the ground. Two other fire-
men were also injured.
Sunnyside At Dunlap
Records 20 Known Dead
Temporary Morgue
Set Up In Pierre
Moran’s School
Editor’s note
Reprinted from the April 12,
1965 edition of The Goshen
News. The death toll at
Sunnyside ended up at 27.
New businesses
along U.S. 33 at the northwest
edge of Dunlap were destroyed by the Sunday eve-
ning twister that started along C.R. 20 and ripped
across U.S. 33 and through the Sunnyside Addition
at Dunlap.
