Oklahoma City Times (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 67, No. 47, Ed. 2 Tuesday, April 3, 1956 Page: 1 of 4
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Wha^s Intide
Oklahoma City Times
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5 DEAD, 47 HURT IN STORMS
Damage Is High
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As Drumright
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Begins Cleanup
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Kansas communities reporting storm -cave at a neighbor’s
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BULLETINS
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WKY-TV television weatherman
proprietor of Drumright’s C & H Grocery, dejectedly looks over the ruins.
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Storm Photo
At Tecumseh School
I
MRS MAXINE
MISS GLORIA
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branded the ISO girls in
ter Bureau, were
(Pleas tumn t Fage 11)
The Weather
were scratched on with pins or
LOCAL—Fair and cooler this
lem for Tinker workers," he ac-1 afternoon and tonight, increasing
Hourly Temperatures
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its phone survey, but will continue
Matrons earn 1154 a month.
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linin'
I"H"S"III I!I‛I l!
bsede
Daylight Time Ruling
Requested at Tinker
New Control
Board Urged
For Prisons
3:30 D.m.
1M p.m.
:W p.m.
within an hour
hit Drumright.
Boy Only
Survivor
City School
Is Evacuated
Twisting
Winds Hit
reality could not be realized until
after the first light of day.
Oklahoma displayed Ite same
faithful brand of courage in time of
disaster aa volunteer workers from
surrounding cities and towns flock-
ed in to aid the stricken towns-
Nine Cities
14 Hurt at Miami,
8 Near Davenport,
3 at Pond Creek
u.
The Picture Story
Pages
Nearly 500 students and 11
teachers were evacuated from Lin-
coin gradeschool at NE 11 and
Geary shortly after 1 p.m. Tues-
day when strong gaa fumes were
discovered.
Fire department officials, Okla-
homa Natural Gas Co., workers
and city engineers converged on
the school grounds to try and track
down the escaping gas
The workmen said the fumes
were heaviest in the basement of
the building near a boiler and
sewer outlet
Possibility the fumes might be
f
THE BUILDING WAS BLOWN AWAY. Only the jumbled stock of his store remains as Gilbert Cartledge, co-
Times Btaff eelor-phote by BMbafv Cobb
I
muc1 ” Al
daughter.. agin
MISS VIRGINIA BEVIL, 17, a
BILL BEVIL a, truck driver.
MRS. MAXINE BEVIL, his wife.
badly damaged
Mrs. Hermanstorfer thanked a
4
22
2
2
■ 18
24
6
7
20-21
24
had charges of immoral conduct
“shesttaemreporter nearly 100
girls at Um school were tattooed
Sixth in a series
reeling the work.
POPE HEARS CONCERT
VATICAN CITY (INS)-Pope
Pius XII, who was something of a
violinist in his younger days. at-
tended a symphony concert Mon-
day night and listened in deep at-
tention for 90 minutes.
cloudiness and continued cool
Wednesday. High this afternoon.
65 degrees. Low tonight, 40 de-
grees High Wednesday. 60 do-
Of men on the campus, Mrs.
weedman advised ia hashed
day's edition of The Daily Okla-
homan
5-State Welfare I
Session to Open
Juvenile delinquency, adoptions
and services to children in their
own homes will be discussed
Wednesday when the regional con-
ference of the American Public
Welfare association goes into ses-
sion at the Biltmore hotel
Five states will be represented
and approximately 500 persons are
expected to attend the professional
workshops. They will coati «•
ly across town.
THE DEATH toll rose to five
when Mrs. 8. E. Weaver, 45.
died at the Cushing hospital at
3:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Not far from the Bevil home.
Mrs. Bob Shideler was entertain-
ing her club, the Junior Delphi-
ans. Her husband was putting his
car in the garage when he heard
the approaching roar of the
twister.
"I just had time to run in the
, (See SURVIVOR-Page 1)
quarters.
Lieut. Gene Bumpus directed
activities of various patrolmen in
home.
The Bevil house, located at a
Deep Rock oil camp on the
northeast edge of town, was de-
molished. The boy's sisters, Vir-
ginia. 17, and Gloria, 16, were
killed when the twister struck.
Hit FATHER, Bill Bevil, a
truck driver, was deed on ar-
rival at Cushing Memorial hos-
pital. Hia mother died at 11 p.m.
at the hospital, an hour and a
halt after the violent atorm
ripped into the Creek county
city of 5,000..
The dock at the police sta-
tion stopped at » « p.m. when
power lines went down.
One of the Bevil girls wu
thrown nearly 100 yarda by the
wind. The other girl was found
almost 50 yards from what wu
left of the small frame home.
BILLY BOB had gone into the
storm cave at the home of Mr.
and Mrs. George Hermanstorf-
grees.
STATE-]Fair and cooler this
afternoon and tonight Increasing
cloudiness and continued cool
Wednesday.
night. (For camera faa». it was
taken with a one-shot color cam-
era. using two flash bulbs. - •
Bill Harmon and Hugh Collum,
of the Oklahoman-Times Stillwa
counted.
The children were given a holi-
day from 1 p.m. on.
Underground gu lines near the
school and sewer lines were being
knowledged.
Boxberger also announced TWA,
American and Braniff airlines
have agreed to change their print-
ed schedules to match Oklahoma
City time if the city becomes a
DST island in Oklahoma.
Wanda Laogaka, Mrs. Vivi-
an Lee Sylvester and her
mother, Mm, Sylvester, first
name unknown.
Mrs. Rose Johns. Paul Mc-
Clarey and Ed Bear were treated
and released at a Cushing hospital,
where the others were taken. Mr.
and Mrs. Chester Belrd were taken
to a Stillwater hospital.
Oil Camp Hit
The full force of the tornado was
first felt as It swooped through
the ball park at the southwest
edge of the city and then roared
down a residential section demof-
COLLEGE COSTS UP
400% IN 50 YEARS/..
The cost of a college educa-
tion is 400% higher today than
it wm in 1902. If you're deter-
mined your children shall have
higher educational advantaqe»
Oklahoman and Times Want Adj
can help.
To make extra money many
folks use Oklahoman and Times
Want Ads to get a better job,
find a money-making businesa
wit things they don't need and
rent spare living-space, for an
Ad Takers help, dial CEntral
2-3311.
operations
Highway Patrol Helps
Fifteen highway patrol units un-
der the command of Maj. Jack
Rollins, highway patrol chief, were
rushed into the area, a few min-
ishing a number of homes, skipped
a block and then wrecked a public
library and caused severe damage
to the Salvation Army building.
Roaring northeastward, it up-
rooted trees, overturned automo-
biles and then danced crazily to-
ward the Deep Rock oil camp
where it destroyed the Bevil home
cave and heard me wina roar and killed the four occupants,
and roar ironically, a house directly
THE FATES spared the life of | across the street escaped damage
the Bevils’ next-door neighbor, and a bird house sitting high atop
M-year-old Lew Smith, though a pole waa untouched
his house was smashed in on top Volunteers Flock In
700707
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Bridge .....
Comics ..........
Crsuward Puzzle
Markets ..........
OM Reports
Times Talk .....
Times for Toom
Rambling Okie .
Sports
wza_n ** el s'--
VI@l •TillElKl
Women’s Pages .
By WAYNE MACKEY
Oklahoma counted five dead and
at least 47 injured Tuesday after
tornadoes struck nine communi-
ties during the night before roar-
ing off into Kansas and Missouri
where many more were hurt.
Drumright, with five dead and
20 injured, was the hardest hit. Mi-
ami. 120 miles northeast of there,
near the Kansas line, counted 14
injured.
Eight were injured near Daven-
port.
Three were injured near Pond
Creek
Others Have Injuries
And Hopeton and Sobol, in op-
posite corners of the state, each
counted one injured. Skeedee and
Quapaw reported twisters but a
report of injuries could not be ob-
tained.
One twister struck a rural area
between Tonkawa and Bhlings.
But no injuries were reported
knives and filled in with ink.
Asked what the school did
about the practice. Mrs. Weed-
man replied:
"We ignore it!"
Girls Separated
Apparently supervisors in the
cottages pay no attention when
girls mark themselves for life.
The superintendent explained
girls suspected of homosexuality
are separated and sent to another
cottage. To her way of thinking,
that cuts down the problem. Doc-
tors claim it is spreading the in-
fection.
“I have told all our house
mothers to answer questions for
the girl a,” the superintendent
says. "But most of them toll me
the girls are better educated on
an matton than they are," she
tones:
d
- ■ v?
m to be very careful,
go. wild every time a
, aideration.
5.
.0.1.
injuries.
Clegg said he was sore and stiff
after the night of tenor, but waa
uninjured outside of scratches.
Damage at Hopeton. a town of
60 people, may total $25,000.
Home Destroyed
The tornado near Davenport
struck at approximately 5 p.m..
Injuring eight persona. Treated and
released from the hospital at
Stroud were Mr. and Mrs Oran
Bailey, their four children, and
Mrs. Bill Bailey.
They were hurt when the Bailey
home. 4 miles north of Davenport,
was destroyed.
Mn. Alva Flores was admitted
to the hospital at Stroud after a
tornado destroyed the Flores home
about 6 miles northeast of Daven-
port
The state highway patrol re-
ported that the farm homes and
(See TWISTERS_Page 2)
i. -
...... 10-11-12
TV Alert Saves
Many in Storm
By BILL HARMON
(Oklahoman -Times HUlw.Ur Bureaw)
DRUMRIGHT - An 8-year-old
boy was the only surviving mem-
ber of a Drumright family after
a tornado struck late Monday
and killed his mother, father and
two sisters.
Billy Bob Bevil found safety
from the swirling death in a
utes after the disaster occurred
The highway patrol's mobile ra-
dio communication truck, only re-
cently returned from directing traf-
fic at the Lawton Easter pageant, caused by crude gas was not die-
was set up directly across the
street from police and fire head-
Robert Hallman.
A Mrs Wheeler.
Mrs Ralph H. Norton, 1228 SW
48, Oklahoma City.
Stanley Crowder.
Anita Crowder.
Oscar Henderson.
Wanda Laogaka.
Mrs. Vivian Lee Sylyester.
A Mrs Sylvester, a relative.
Mrs. Rose Johns.
Paul McClarey.
Ed Bear.
Mr. and Mrs. Chester Beird.
Mr. and Mn. John Eakins.
Joan Johnson. Duncan.
MIAMI
INJURED:
Jake Blevins.
Mary Blevins, his wife.
Bill Taylor.
0. G. Lauback, M. Bartlesville.
Mr. and Mrs. BiU Mattingly.
Pete Longebaugh, 35
Lute Barger.
Larry Allgood, 17, Baxter
INJURED
Mn. Zadie Cummings.
Bill Cummings, 20, a son
Judy Cummings, 17, his wife.
Sharon Lynn Cummings, 4
months, a daughter
Larry Cummings, 16, son of Mrs.
Zadie Cummings.
for saving their lives.
"The good Lord blew Wally
Kinnan," she said. "He told ua
It wu coming. We went into the
and heard the wind roar
By CLAIRE COWLEY J
“These girls are very emotional, oversexed and as
would be expected, unadjusted in most respects.’’
With that statement to the department of charities
SEATTLE UR - Flap trouble ■
was the probably cause of 1
Monday's crash landing of a I
luxury airliner in Puget Sound
with loss of five lives, an official I
of Northwest Orient airlines I
Mid Tuesday.
UNITED NATIONS, N Y. (A |
— Russia Tuesday submitted a I
series of amendments which
may delay approval of a U.S.
plan to send Secretary General
Dag Hammarskjold on a special
Middle East peace mission. The
amendments were circulated I
unexpectedly just as the IL I
nation security council ad- I
journed its morning session.
MIAMI BIACH (INS) —
Fifty three persons were saved
Tuesday when a 65-foot long
luxury yacht, Phantom, cap-
sited in the gulfstream at Cape
Florida Light off Miami Beach.
The coast guard said that the I
yacht was in distress and
rushed three cutters and a
helicopter to the scene.
VIENNA, Austria UR — Re-
ports reaching Vienna ‘Tuesday
said that the Czechoslovak and
Bulgarian Communist govern-
ments have begun releasing
victims of their Stalin era
purge trials.
.e
Out-of-towners were joining to
(See TIME-Page 1)
0 <
DRUMRIGHT
DEAD: —----
f
er, two doors down the street.
The Hermanstorfer house was
They were joined shortly after-
wards by Bob McMillin. Tima
staff writer; Ai McLaughlin. Times
chief photographer; and photog-
raphers Cobb. Bob Albright ana
John Gumm. Theirs and Collum’s
pictures will be found on Pages
14 and 15.
The tornado scenes also were
sought the safety of the storm
cellar.
“I guess I'm just lucky to be
alive," be Mid. "I wasn't even
hurt."
■
Creation of a penal control board .
to take operation of Oklahoma's
prisons and correctional schools
from the state board of affairs was
called for Tuesday by state Sen.
George Miskovsky, Oklahoma City.
Miskovsky called upon the state
legislative council to study his pro-
posal and draft a bill creating a
board of penal control
in a letter to Jack Rhodes, coun-
cil director, Miskovsky wrote he
felt the board of affairs "has such
a tremendous work load that its
members would doubtless welcome
the opportunity to surrender the
control of penal institutions to a
special board set up lor thia pur
pose"
"Conditions of the state penal in-
stitutions could bo immeasurably
improved," he continued, “It
placed under the control of a spe-
cial penal board, and ... the un-
fortunate boys and girls who are
state ward! of these institutions
would receive the personal and
(Im BOARD-Fage 2)
p7,00220....n..u00nz.c.--poeorevrervrrroepeerepraererF7mAm
; daughter
MRS. JOSIE WEAVER. IL
and corrections, Mrs. Mae Weedman, superintendent of
the white girls' training —:L———-
school at Tecumseh;
Boxberger said he has turned
over a report to city hall, listing
2,910 signatures and phone calls •
favoring the change and 122 op-
posed An additional 462 "yes"
votes and 22 nays arrived Mon-
day, be Mid.
Retailers’ office ia discontinuing I
.1.1."
Reports from six Oklahoma com-
munities Tuesday revealed these
casualties from tornadoes which
ripped the state. ′′
6 4 •
cl
Injuries and destruction nclude
the vicinities of Baxter Springs.
Maple City, Otto, Grenola, Strong
City, Toronto, Attica, Florence,
Fredonia, Radium and Ellingwood.
Three Missouri cities reported
tornadoes. Joplin, Webb City, and
Carterville.
The twister hit near Pond Creek.
Grant county, where three mem-
bers of a single family were taken
to an Enid hospital after the farm
home of Paul Clegg was demol-
ished.
First report of nature's over-
night madness came from Hope-
ton. small Woods county city in
northwestern Oklahoma.
Mrs. Ross Veatch, 77. was struck
by debris and injured as she ran
toward a storm cellar.
Ranchers Safe
The roaring twister toppled a
wooden grain elevator, derailed 12
boxcars, and damaged homes and
businesses.
Northeast of Hopeton. between
Cherokee and Burlington, one of
the largest ranches in northwestern
Oklahoma was hit by a swirling,
twisting mass of clouds, doing ex-
tensive damage to metal bama.
The ranch is owned by Roy Schoeb.
The Schoebs and three other
families who live and work on the
ranch huddled in a cellar.
Davenport is Next
The twister hit near Pond Creek.
Grant county, where three mem-
, bers of a single family were taken
to an Enid hospital after the farm
home of Paul Cleu wm demo-
lished.
The Injured Include Clegg's
daughter. Marsha, 14, who suffered
a scalp wound and other cuts; Mrs.
Clegg and a young son, both of
whom suffered shock and minor
4"
f
1
II
It
f
covered photographically from the
air. Photographer Jim Lucs left —
bv plane at dawn Tuesday, flying with names or initiate of other
aa far east as Miami. Many of his girls and boy friends. Marks
photos are in the Times and
others will be seen in Wednes-
322/2
(Im DRUMRIGHT-Pm» « comnpeny bwothersfrzmnipond, city
, fire warden, waa at the scene di-
tto Girls Tattooed
Yet a list of girls and their of-
fenses showed only five were
committed for prostitution and »
Tuesday's dwindling vote in
Oklahoma City's daylight saving
time straw ballot was running
nearly two-to-one against the time
switch. But the ayes still held a
500-vote edge.
New letters and postcards tal-
lied 133 for DST to 237 against.
Grand totals so far: 1,846 yes, to
1,362 no.
Meanwhile, J. J. Boxberger sec-
retary-manager for Retail Mer-
chants who are aMking the one-
hour summer time advance. Mid
he will formally aak Tinker air-
force base authorities what action
they might take if city time
changes.
"They may not be in a position
to make a decision, but 4 want
to try to sound out their thinking.
I can im bow it might bo a prob-
' 9 •
By BOB McMILLIN
(Times statt Writer
DRUMRIGHT—Oklahoma’a first death-dealing tor- I
nado of the season swooped through this city Monday
night, leaving five dead, more than 20 injured and damage
estimated anywhere from $150,000 to $500,000.
The tornadic winds swept from out of the southwest,
down Oklahoma’s tornado alley, at exactly 9:35 p.m. Mon-
day.
The storm ripped a path two blocks wide and 20 blocks
long from the southwest to the northeast corner of the
oil city but missed the major portion of the downtown
business district.
The five dead, including four members of one family,
are:
BILL BEVIL, 40, a truck driver.
MRS. MAXINE BEVIL, hia wife
MISS GLORIA BEVIL, 16, a daughter
MISS VIRGINIA BEVIL, 17, a daughter.
MRS. JOSIE WEAVER, 81.
The known injured includes, Mrs. Zadie Cummings;
her ion, Bill Cummings, 20; his wife, Judy, 17: their baby,
6 months; and Mrs. Cummings' younger son, Larry, 16.
Other known Injured are Robert Hallman, a Mrs.
Wheeler, Mrs. Ralph H. Norton, 1228 SW 48, Oklahoma
City; Stanley Crowder, Anita Crowder, Oscar Henderson,
1
Counties Get
'Disaster9 Ta^
WASHINGTON (INS)-The small
business administration listed three
Oklahoma and Kansas counties as
disaster areas Tuesday because of
extensive tornado damage.
The action makes the counties
eligible for emergency federal
loans to rebuild homes and busl-
nesses.
The counties designated by SBA
head Wendell B. Barnes were
Greek and Ottawa in Oklahoma
and Cherokee in Kansas.
_______ 1 122
to tabulate cards and petitions, be ,w "
Mid. IMP
till.
her charges.
_ a.- ,nz ----- - Mn. Weedman informed a leg-
2,102 29 J Aslative counoilzrodp In January
after the rnado that sex problems were one of
the chief worries at the school
Three of the 14 pouses in the
oil lease camp were destroyed.
Nearby, the roof of Edison school people,
was blown away. The storm aP- within an hour after the tornado
peered to have followed SH to swept through, volunteer police-
out of town to the north after men, firemen. Salvation Army,
striking from the southwest and civil defense and Red Cross work-
cutting a curving path diagonal- ■ ers were here to assist in rescue
MUtw W TW p«ey CUM—■■ > twn< M Owed— WWW a FMsMm at OWM-sa ate. OUM—a___________
VOL. LXVII, NO. 47 TWENTY-EIGHT PAGES-500 N BROADWAY, OKLAHOMA CITY, TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1956 PRICE FIVE cents
IIIII 'THiW!
till .7h.bsflti
;r 4
0 (*
Springs, Ken
Henry Volger.
Laverne Freese, soldier from
Fort Sill.
Marta Neal.
(Im Toui-" 1)
Our Problem Children... Casualty List
Girls Are 'Branded’ In Tornadoes
■
through Friday.
Problems of the aged and re- . .
hahjlitntion services for the chron- Haugh.
Ically ill are other topics for con-
" 225
%tr
evnijd.
of him. Smith Mid he stayed in The tornado that saw nature at
the house to watch television her worst here Monday night was
while his wife and 2-year-old son an awesome sight but the grim
12
M 4:N s,m, .
S tmi
■ »» Em: .
#zi
2"5:
Is Milestone
The picture you see above it,
as far u. we know, a newspaper
first.
it is the first spot color picture
of tornado damage taken at night,
and rushed into our first edition.
It was taken by Richard Cobb,
staff color photographer, who was
on the scene shortly before mid-
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Gaylord, E. K. Oklahoma City Times (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 67, No. 47, Ed. 2 Tuesday, April 3, 1956, newspaper, April 3, 1956; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc2000253/m1/1/: accessed June 11, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.