Daily hansan
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
54th Year, No. 147
Tuesday, May 21, 1957
—(Daily Kansan photo)
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS—When the University carillon tolls the traditional commencement music June 3, it will be the parting of these five KU students, schoolmates since the
first grade and who have all maintained over 2. grade averages in college. From left: David Schwartz, Richard Billings, Blaine Hollinger, Jack Dusay, and Gary Sick, all Russell seniors.
Long Walk Down Hill Draws Near
With finals approaching and commencement set for June 3, thoughts of that traditional long walk in the dusk of Oread valley are beginning to creep up on the graduating seniors.
As the long line of graduates begins to move and darkness sets in, the lights in Strong Hall, the Student Union and Green Hall that face Memorial Stadium, will be turned on.
The line, extending from the top of the campus to the Stadium, which is the site of the Commencement exercises, will be led by the parade marshals and the commencement chairman, Henry A. Shenk, associate professor of physical education.
Ronald M. Barnes, instructor of music history, will play the carillon until the beginning of the line enters the rate leading onto the track.
Then the University band, under the direction of Russell L. Wiley, professor of band and orchestra, will play a medley of grand marches until the group is seated.
Regents Chairman Present
The band will play as the graduates march onto the stage to receive their diplomas from A. W. Hershberger, chairman of the Board of Regents. The alma mater will be played as the group disbands after the exercises.
As the seniors leave the platform after the conferring of the degrees, they will be handed a diploma receipt, to be signed and exchanged for their diploma after the exercises, and a dummy diploma which will be a souvenir aerial picture of the campus.
The Rev. Emerson G. Hangen, minister to the First Congregational Church, Long Beach, Calif., will give the invocation at the baccalaureate services June 2 which also will be held in Memorial Stadium.
"One of the finest events for seniors during the Commencement week activities is the senior breakfast," Fred Ellsworth, secretary of the Alumni Assn., said. "It is exclusively for seniors and is at 8:30 am. June 3.
Senior Breakfast June 3
The Last Gasp, the traditional
Last Regular Issue Of The Daily Kansar
Today's issue of the Daily Kansan is the last one for the semester. The first issue of the Summer Session Kansan will be published June 11.
senior newspaper, will be circulated at the breakfast. Jane Pecinovsky, Kansas City, Mo. senior, and editor, said the paper would contain the class prophecy and history, the list of graduates and stories about seniors.
Gov. Docking will be the guest of honor at a reception for the graduates at 3 p.m. June 3 in the Student Union ballroom to which parents
and faculty members are invited.
The all-University Commencement supper, where Chancellor Murphy will give the annual summary of KU progress, will be at 4:15 p.m. June 2 in the Student Union Ballroom. Included among the guests will be the alumni receiving citations. Tickets will be on sale next week in the office of the Dean of Men.
—(Daffy Kansan photo)
HOW ABOUT DECORATING?—If you are apartment-decorating soon, try something like this statue for a conversation piece. It is part of the Whitney Museum of American Art's exhibition which is on display here through June 4 in the Student Union lounge.
Tornado Hits Area,36 Die
The home of Freddie Wilson, Bucyrus junior, was destroyed Monday night in the tornado that slashed into several northeast Kansas towns and the southeast corner of Greater Kansas City.
At least 36 were killed and 230 injured in the worst tornado of the year, which for a time threatened Lawrence and the surrounding area.
The homes of several other students or those of their relatives have been reported destroyed, but the reports could not be confirmed before The Daily Kansan went to press.
Wilson's home is about three miles west of Stanley.
Tornado Strikes House
His parents had been invited to eat with their daughter and son-in-law about 5:30 p.m. Monday. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson left their home about 9:15 p.m. and the tornado struck the house about 30 minutes later.
"The house is a total loss," Wilson said this morning. "However, we have salvaged much of our clothing and I think most of the furniture can be saved."
wilson does not know where he will live this summer.
Carol Dietz, Hickman Mills junior, whose home was in the direct path of the tornado, learned after several anxious hours Monday night and this morning that her parents were not at home at the time of the disaster and escaped injury.
She learned from relatives this morning that part of the roof of her home had been ripped off and several windows shattered.
Several exchanges in the disaster area were knocked out in the wake of the tornado and Monday night only emergency calls were being put through to Kansas City.
Lawrence long distance operators said this morning that an extremely heavy number of telephone calls were being placed to Kansas City and to exchanges in the general area of the tornado. They reported that the Kansas City system was also swamped with calls from other parts of the country.
Home In Disaster Area
Hearing radio reports that the tornado had struck in the immediate area of her home, she drove to Kansas City, but could not enter the disaster area. About 5:30 this morning she telephoned her brother Charles, a student at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, who had received a call from the parents assuring him that they were safe. Her parents had been at their place of business in Grandview when the tornado approached the area.
Miss Dietz' home is directly east of the A & P supermarket in that area in which several people were trapped. Her home is about 100 yards away from the shopping center which was virtually destroyed.
Students Seek Information — Students at the University whose home or the homes of relatives are in the disaster are seeking information but are having difficulty in telephoning the Kansas City area.
Two Killed in Ottawa
The 36 deaths reported included two in Ottawa.
Lawrence was on the edge of the storm area and received :59 inches of rain. Residents who heard the radio warnings stood out in the streets and peered anxiously at the black cloud formations. No wind damage was reported.
Martial law was declared in the Ruskin Heights area, where the tornado left a path of destruction five blocks long and three blocks wide. Police feared that many more bodies of victims would be found in the block-by-block search of the area, in which an estimated 500 homes were wrecked.
Police and Red Cross set up an emergency headquarters to find the missing and to unite families. Most of the victims were taken to Menorah Hospital on Rockhill Road in Kansas City, Mo. Hospital officials
(See Tornado, Page 16.)
(This eyewitness account of the tornado damage to the Ruskin Heights area of Kansas City, Mo., was written by John C. Davis, Neodesha freshman, on his return from that area at approximately 2:30 a.m. today. He and Middleton Tompkins, Long Beach, Calif, and Thomas Coffelt, Topeka, freshmen, arrived in Ruskin Heights at about 9:30 p.m. Monday.)
By JOHN C. DAVIS
The first news reports came in over the radio at 7:30. They were short and terse:
"A tornado has just struck southern Kansas City. The storm is believed centered around the Ruskin Heights area on the Blue Ridge Road. All policemen in District 2 please report to the Hickman Mills Area."
That was all we needed. I grabbed my camera, an extra roll of film, some flashbulbs, and we headed for Kansas City.
We reached Kansas City at 9:30 Everything seemed normal until we hit Highway 71.
There the flow of traffic was moving at about 65 to 70 miles an hour over the rain-soaked streets. Every other car seemed to have a red light on it. We picked up three ambulances and followed them to 85th Street. There was the police roadblock, stalling traffic for two blocks in all directions. No cars except emergency vehicles were allowed to pass over the Blue Ridge Bridge.
Enter Disaster Area
We swung around another police roadblock at Troost and 85th, then crossed the Blue River on Bannister Road. A policeman was desperately trving to direct traffic away from Highway 71.
Tom leaned out the window ... "We're from the University Daily Kansan in Lawrence. Can we get inside the disaster area?" He waved us in.
Highway 71 was devoid of all normal traffic. The only cars except ours were equipped with sirens and red lights. We sped along through what was seemingly totally dark countryside. Then we began to notice faint flickers of light among the trees to the sides of the roads. The flickers were candles and hand lanterns. All power was out in South Kansas City.
Highway 71 lead us within a few blocks of the devastated Ruskin Heights shopping center.
There was a steady stream of ambulances, police cars, wreckers, and jury-rigged carriers streaming onto Ruskin Road. There were even several Post Office trucks being used to haul out the injured.
Silver Blue Glare
As we approached the area where the tornado had struck, the first thing that we noticed was the light. Huge spotlights cast a silver-blue glare over the entire landscape. The ground was littered with small bits of shingle and wood as we crossed the Longview School baseball diamond. At one end of the field, I noticed an enormous piece of sheet metal bent around the children's swing. It was crumpled like tinfoil.
Chunks of brick and mortar and an occasional twisted steel fragments dotted the school grounds. The windows of the schools and even a part of the wall on the north side had been blown out.
Spread out before us, in the full glare of the searchlights, was the remains of the Ruskin Heights shopping center. Once a magnificent series of stores, composed of 14 connected buildings covering 4 average city blocks, it was now a mass of rubble. Hardy a single section stood over 10 feet high. Workmen and rescue workers looked like ants on a giant anthill as they crawled through the ruins.
Steel girders more than three feet thick were twisted like ribbon. One massive beam was bent over the tops of two cars, crushing them almost flat. All of the walls seemed to have been turned into
(See Eyewitness, Page 16.)