Athens Daily Review, January 10 & 17, 1946

***************************************************************************

Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

Transcribed by Janet Cook 
Submitted by Scott Fitzgerald - scottfitzgerald@tyler.net 
East Texas Genealogical Society, Vice-President 13 May 2006

***************************************************************************

Athens Daily Review, Jan 10, 1946

"Tornado Leaves 20 Known Dead in East Texas"

There were twenty known dead Saturday morning and more than 150 hospitalized
in the wake of a tornado which slashed through the Palestine, Clawson and
Nacogdoches areas of East Texas Friday night, and it was believed that the
injury list would rise to possibly 200 as rescue workers continued their
emergency work.

Fourteen were reported dead at Palestine, two at Clawson, north of Lufkin,
and four at Nacogdoches.

The Palestine dead were: Teague Wylie, Charles Ray Morrison and his wife and
son, Mr. and Mrs. Sam B. Ray and daughter, a Lipscomb boy, Homer Morrison, a
Mr. Hendricks, and two white children and two colored children.

More than thirty persons were in Palestine hospitals, and scores of others
were believed to be missing.

The wives of Mr. Wylie and Mr. Hendricks were in a critical condition at
Palestine hospitals.

Frank Kelly, driver of the Hassell & Foster ambulance of Athens, who was
called to Palestine Friday night about 9:30 o'clock, said that hospitals
there were overflowing with injured, and that many others were sent home
after receiving emergency treatment. Mr. Kelly pulled the body of Mr. Wylie
from the wreckage of the Teague home. Kelly said that nurses throughout the
Palestine area volunteered their services.

The main force of the storm was felt in Southview on the Old Boston highway,
a suburb of Palestine, and in addition on the Rusk and Elkhart highways, Mr.
Kelly said. He was at work in the devastated area all night.

At Clawson, Mr. and Mrs. Will Dunn and Mrs. Ed Smith were reported killed.
None of the dead at Nacogdoches had been identified early Saturday.

Ambulances from Camp Fannin were helping to bring the injured to hospitals
at Nacogdoches, and more than 100 had received emergency treatment there at
an early hour Saturday. Injured were still being brought into the city,
which was in darkness. The streams and highways were finding it difficult to
reach the heart of the stricken area.

The hospital there was overflowing and the city hall and hotels were turned
into emergency hospitals.

The storm struck first at Neches in the Palestine area, but there were none
injured at Neches. Considerable damage was done. It then moved on to the
Southview addition at Palestine, where a score or more of homes were
destroyed.

State Guard units and Boy Scouts and groups of citizens turned out to aid in
the rescue work, and it was believed that it would be noon Saturday or later
before a full survey of the death and destruction could be made.


Athens Weekly Review, Jan. 17, 1946

"Two More Die From Tornado Injuries; Toll Now Sixteen"

Deaths of two more persons last week end brought Palestine's total tornado
death to sixteen.

Funeral services for Mrs. E. H. Hendrick, who died Friday morning in a
Palestine hospital, were held Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the
Evergreen tabernacle in Houston County. Her husband, a Southview grocer, was
killed instantly when the twister demolished their store and home Friday
night, January 4.

Jerry Anderson, 78, colored farmer, died last Thursday. The tornado
demolished his home on the Posey Bridge road.