Black Friday in Judsonia
10/23/25 12:43 AM Filed in: Judsonia
An excerpt from my father's unpublished autobiography, "A Country Doctor In Washington".
21. Fri. March 21, 1952 - BLACK FRIDAY
A beautiful day in Washington with temp at 83. Following ID clinic Westfall, Teedie and I to Rock Creek and played 6 holes of golf. Picked Romona up at 1730 at Mr. N's request to take her home as Mr. N. was committed to picking Janis up. Almost hot here tonight.
I was awakened from sound sleep around 0200 by my bedside phone. Was so sleepy that I had difficulty in understanding/ grasping/ focusing upon the content of the call. It was a male volunteer Red cross worker calling from the Hawkins Clinic Hospital in Searcy. The message was "Your Dad wants you to know they're all right and in the hospital here. There's been a terrible tornado in Judsonia with many injured and killed. We still lack many details. They got your parents out. Both have some injuries, not expected to be serious, your dad said to tell you. He was anxious that you be informed they're all right. He told me to ask how soon you'll be home?"
21. Fri. March 21, 1952 - BLACK FRIDAY
A beautiful day in Washington with temp at 83. Following ID clinic Westfall, Teedie and I to Rock Creek and played 6 holes of golf. Picked Romona up at 1730 at Mr. N's request to take her home as Mr. N. was committed to picking Janis up. Almost hot here tonight.
I was awakened from sound sleep around 0200 by my bedside phone. Was so sleepy that I had difficulty in understanding/ grasping/ focusing upon the content of the call. It was a male volunteer Red cross worker calling from the Hawkins Clinic Hospital in Searcy. The message was "Your Dad wants you to know they're all right and in the hospital here. There's been a terrible tornado in Judsonia with many injured and killed. We still lack many details. They got your parents out. Both have some injuries, not expected to be serious, your dad said to tell you. He was anxious that you be informed they're all right. He told me to ask how soon you'll be home?"
This statement to me was a signal of a serious situation and that Dad wanted me to come home. After reflecting briefly about the call and seeking my wits I attempted to call back to seek additional information only to be informed that no phone access was possible. I called Mr. North to acquaint him with my news. TV's and radios were turned on but news remained fragmentary. I initiated contact with American airlines and was told they'd seek a priority booking for me on Saturday the 22nd, (which it had already become by that hour.) Mr. North, too, indicated he'd see what his contacts could do as soon as they could be reached. Also, I needed to alert GWU personnel which really proved to be a mere formality, for everyone was as considerate as could be.
By late morning I was on a flight to Little Rock with a single intermediary stop. When I deplaned at Adams Field I was met spontaneously by Eura Jeanne Jones Smith and husband Frank who had learned via some means of the flight I was on. They informed me that both parents had been transferred to the Baptist Hospital in Little Rock and seemed to have sustained relatively minor problems. Dad suffered a fractured wrist(? from attempting to fend off the falling roof of the store reflexly with his hand as it caved in on them), at least three fractured ribs, and an injured neck. Mother had fractured transverse processes on three lumbar vertebrae, quite painful but not medically threatening.
The Smith's chauffeured me initially to the Lafayette Hotel where I readily obtained a room, and then to the Baptist Hospital where I located both parents, and I was never sure which was happier to see me. More attention was being devoted to Dad because he had sustained some degree of shock, and perhaps transient unconsciousness and over the next several days he developed urinary retention and required splinting of the neck and the arm to be placed in a cast. The emotional shock was appreciable for both, especially as casualties were progressively identified. Billy Waller and his nine year old daughter, Jeanette, who had been only separated by the thickness of a brick partition in their grocery store immediately north of the drug store, apparently had been killed instantly. Dad later recalled gathering mother around the waist and steering her between the safe and pharmacy counter toward the north wall fearing the southern one had been weakened by the fire of the previous winter. This reflex action on his part may have saved them both. Glen D. Young, age 52 and recently married to Gypsy Gayle Woodyard had died up in the north end of town, and the count went upward. After reassuring myself that both parents were stable and in no immediate danger we settled down a bit. Both were eager for me to proceed up home on the morrow (Sunday) and reconnoiter the people as well as the town, especially our neighbors, home, car and store to ascertain the extent of family and property damage.
I've forgotten how this jaunt was accomplished but believe Frank Smith again volunteered to serve. In Searcy we went by Bolton's Pontiac agency and he quickly presented me with the keys to a good used car "for as long as you need them"! Which continued to exemplify the local spirit.
I was halted on several occasions between Searcy and Judsonia as the National Guard and other authorities had established road blocks to impede the just curious as well as the looters. The devastation when I pulled into Judsonia was unbelievable to me. Although it was Sunday, I was impressed by the fact that the Arkansas Power and Light Company had a number of crews at work removing and replacing power poles and lines. Likewise heavy equipment was tackling the rubble of former store buildings that had been Judsonia. After a short time I was assured of the physical welfare of neighboring Gills, Figleys, Queens, Eddie, Dee and Arthur Young, Brownings, Graves et al. Our home was almost totally destroyed with little roof remaining, rock and brick walls fallen, trees uprooted; mother's relatively new drapes extruded and torn with their shreds blowing in the wind outside where windows had been, and the interior soaked including grand piano, carpeting and organ. Eddie had done what he could in the time available to protect what was left. Initially, I harbored doubts the home could be restored.
We were fortunate that the insurance on furnishings was comprehensive coverage and that the contents had been refurbished the preceding fall when the home was remodeled.
The remnants of the drug store were only another large pile of rubble. The roof of the building had dropped into the interior almost in toto. One end of the prescription counter had supported one corner of the roof and a large, transverse, inferior joist of it was resting atop a large steel safe. These two supports had provided sufficient stabilizing support that had protected my parents from the full direct blow and weight of the roof and crumbled brick walls, although the debris had filled in around them anyway. I was told that rescuers manually dug into the heap of debris for almost two hours before locating and extricating them and locating transportation for their journey to the Searcy hospital. It was said that darkness and cloudbursts had fallen quickly. The day following the storm was bright, clear and almost cold as is typical of the spring cold fronts which follow hot days.
Somewhere much of this was recorded by me, and when/if I locate it these notes will be supplemented.
The newly dedicated Baptist Church and parsonage of great local pride also had been totally demolished, as had the ill-fated Community Hall and all local public school buildings and gymnasium. For many established landmarks such as the Elliott and the Johnson Hotels and the Judsonia depot all one could achieve was to point where they had been! The same was true for my grandmother's old home.
Fortunately, the entire state and surrounding territory was mobilized for construction workers, and they were needed. Here, again, Frank Smith was extremely helpful for he located an American Indian construction foreman who promptly appeared and prepared a bid on rebuilding the home, and was able to recruit sufficient skilled workers to expeditiously get work underway. Insurance adjusters were on duty around the clock and set to serve the insured promptly. I encountered little or no quibbling or haggling.
As best I could tell when in question the insured were afforded the benefit of the doubt. All our properties were judged to have been "totaled", but our local agent had failed to include comprehensive coverage on the contents of the store, and that was a total loss.
Dad's auto, a late model Pontiac sedan had been flattened like a pancake when a brick wall toppled onto it. An auto scavenger from Oklahoma bid several hundred dollars for it and it was sold on the spot by an adjuster who settled with me for full blue book value.
Coverage of the disaster by the media, especially newspapers was intense and Edward R. Murrow had TV coverage for "See it Now" and made a return visit the following year to point out the recovery efforts.
The Salvation Army distributed 1500 gallons of coffee and 12,000 doughnuts. The Production and Marketing Administration turned over dried milk, eggs, beans concentrated juices and honey which had been stored from government price support activities to the Red Cross and Salvation Army for distribution.
Noted Concert Pianist Jose Iturbi offered to play a tornado benefit in Little Rock, paying his own expenses from New York.
Governor Sid McMath visited Judsonia on March 22nd and was photographed in the ruins of downtown Judsonia. Aerial and ground photographers had field days with our home and the drug store rubble heap appearing in many of the views.
General Douglas MacArthur who was born in Little Rock and had recently been fired by President Truman was visiting Little Rock with his wife and son, Arthur, on March 23rd. One picture in The Arkansas Gazette labeled "Once the hub of a thriving town" that Sunday morning included a view of the flattened drug store and Dad’s equally flattened Pontiac. Another depicted the vault of The Farmers and Merchants Bank being dug from beneath the rubble with a member of the National Guard standing guard nearby. Another headline read "Tornado Havoc Seems Unreal from Plane at 2000 feet."
Edward Chapman1, age 12, pitched a winning baseball game for Judsonia High School that Friday afternoon before the storm struck. His was one of the first bodies dug out and identified following the storm. The annual junior/senior banquet and dance was scheduled for that evening in Searcy and many of the students were in their homes dressing for the event when the storm struck. Many of their number were dead or injured; others found only a pile of twisted timber for their homes and death in their families. Their school buildings were destroyed.
The Arkansas death toll was 131 with 55 from White County, plus 3000 homeless and 711 injured.
L.E. DuLaney1 of Judsonia sat slumped in the corner of a funeral home saying, "I lost everything. I lost everything". His wife died when the store they owned fell in on her. At 3 a.m people were still trailing thru the funeral homes trying to identify the dead.
MONDAY MARCH 24, 1952: Page one of The Arkansas Democrat: "No Time For Tears, Judsonia is rebuilding. The city’s only doctor, Dr. W. R. Felts is in the Arkansas Baptist Hospital, seriously injured along with his wife.”
"Mass funerals were held in Judsonia this morning”. "The town has been closed to traffic by the 153rd national guard. Persons are required to have a pass to enter or leave the city. Two main disaster areas are set up in the Elliott Hotel and the educational building of the First Methodist Church, across the street the only two suitable places available following the tornados.”
The Enterprise Box Factory was heavily damaged but not destroyed.
The Buffalo Strawberry Processing Plant, another of the city’s industries which had been recruited to move to Judsonia largely by Dad as mayor was totally destroyed by the high winds.
[1] Additional details here, here.
By late morning I was on a flight to Little Rock with a single intermediary stop. When I deplaned at Adams Field I was met spontaneously by Eura Jeanne Jones Smith and husband Frank who had learned via some means of the flight I was on. They informed me that both parents had been transferred to the Baptist Hospital in Little Rock and seemed to have sustained relatively minor problems. Dad suffered a fractured wrist(? from attempting to fend off the falling roof of the store reflexly with his hand as it caved in on them), at least three fractured ribs, and an injured neck. Mother had fractured transverse processes on three lumbar vertebrae, quite painful but not medically threatening.
The Smith's chauffeured me initially to the Lafayette Hotel where I readily obtained a room, and then to the Baptist Hospital where I located both parents, and I was never sure which was happier to see me. More attention was being devoted to Dad because he had sustained some degree of shock, and perhaps transient unconsciousness and over the next several days he developed urinary retention and required splinting of the neck and the arm to be placed in a cast. The emotional shock was appreciable for both, especially as casualties were progressively identified. Billy Waller and his nine year old daughter, Jeanette, who had been only separated by the thickness of a brick partition in their grocery store immediately north of the drug store, apparently had been killed instantly. Dad later recalled gathering mother around the waist and steering her between the safe and pharmacy counter toward the north wall fearing the southern one had been weakened by the fire of the previous winter. This reflex action on his part may have saved them both. Glen D. Young, age 52 and recently married to Gypsy Gayle Woodyard had died up in the north end of town, and the count went upward. After reassuring myself that both parents were stable and in no immediate danger we settled down a bit. Both were eager for me to proceed up home on the morrow (Sunday) and reconnoiter the people as well as the town, especially our neighbors, home, car and store to ascertain the extent of family and property damage.
I've forgotten how this jaunt was accomplished but believe Frank Smith again volunteered to serve. In Searcy we went by Bolton's Pontiac agency and he quickly presented me with the keys to a good used car "for as long as you need them"! Which continued to exemplify the local spirit.
I was halted on several occasions between Searcy and Judsonia as the National Guard and other authorities had established road blocks to impede the just curious as well as the looters. The devastation when I pulled into Judsonia was unbelievable to me. Although it was Sunday, I was impressed by the fact that the Arkansas Power and Light Company had a number of crews at work removing and replacing power poles and lines. Likewise heavy equipment was tackling the rubble of former store buildings that had been Judsonia. After a short time I was assured of the physical welfare of neighboring Gills, Figleys, Queens, Eddie, Dee and Arthur Young, Brownings, Graves et al. Our home was almost totally destroyed with little roof remaining, rock and brick walls fallen, trees uprooted; mother's relatively new drapes extruded and torn with their shreds blowing in the wind outside where windows had been, and the interior soaked including grand piano, carpeting and organ. Eddie had done what he could in the time available to protect what was left. Initially, I harbored doubts the home could be restored.
We were fortunate that the insurance on furnishings was comprehensive coverage and that the contents had been refurbished the preceding fall when the home was remodeled.
The remnants of the drug store were only another large pile of rubble. The roof of the building had dropped into the interior almost in toto. One end of the prescription counter had supported one corner of the roof and a large, transverse, inferior joist of it was resting atop a large steel safe. These two supports had provided sufficient stabilizing support that had protected my parents from the full direct blow and weight of the roof and crumbled brick walls, although the debris had filled in around them anyway. I was told that rescuers manually dug into the heap of debris for almost two hours before locating and extricating them and locating transportation for their journey to the Searcy hospital. It was said that darkness and cloudbursts had fallen quickly. The day following the storm was bright, clear and almost cold as is typical of the spring cold fronts which follow hot days.
Somewhere much of this was recorded by me, and when/if I locate it these notes will be supplemented.
The newly dedicated Baptist Church and parsonage of great local pride also had been totally demolished, as had the ill-fated Community Hall and all local public school buildings and gymnasium. For many established landmarks such as the Elliott and the Johnson Hotels and the Judsonia depot all one could achieve was to point where they had been! The same was true for my grandmother's old home.
Fortunately, the entire state and surrounding territory was mobilized for construction workers, and they were needed. Here, again, Frank Smith was extremely helpful for he located an American Indian construction foreman who promptly appeared and prepared a bid on rebuilding the home, and was able to recruit sufficient skilled workers to expeditiously get work underway. Insurance adjusters were on duty around the clock and set to serve the insured promptly. I encountered little or no quibbling or haggling.
As best I could tell when in question the insured were afforded the benefit of the doubt. All our properties were judged to have been "totaled", but our local agent had failed to include comprehensive coverage on the contents of the store, and that was a total loss.
Dad's auto, a late model Pontiac sedan had been flattened like a pancake when a brick wall toppled onto it. An auto scavenger from Oklahoma bid several hundred dollars for it and it was sold on the spot by an adjuster who settled with me for full blue book value.
Coverage of the disaster by the media, especially newspapers was intense and Edward R. Murrow had TV coverage for "See it Now" and made a return visit the following year to point out the recovery efforts.
The Salvation Army distributed 1500 gallons of coffee and 12,000 doughnuts. The Production and Marketing Administration turned over dried milk, eggs, beans concentrated juices and honey which had been stored from government price support activities to the Red Cross and Salvation Army for distribution.
Noted Concert Pianist Jose Iturbi offered to play a tornado benefit in Little Rock, paying his own expenses from New York.
Governor Sid McMath visited Judsonia on March 22nd and was photographed in the ruins of downtown Judsonia. Aerial and ground photographers had field days with our home and the drug store rubble heap appearing in many of the views.
General Douglas MacArthur who was born in Little Rock and had recently been fired by President Truman was visiting Little Rock with his wife and son, Arthur, on March 23rd. One picture in The Arkansas Gazette labeled "Once the hub of a thriving town" that Sunday morning included a view of the flattened drug store and Dad’s equally flattened Pontiac. Another depicted the vault of The Farmers and Merchants Bank being dug from beneath the rubble with a member of the National Guard standing guard nearby. Another headline read "Tornado Havoc Seems Unreal from Plane at 2000 feet."
Edward Chapman1, age 12, pitched a winning baseball game for Judsonia High School that Friday afternoon before the storm struck. His was one of the first bodies dug out and identified following the storm. The annual junior/senior banquet and dance was scheduled for that evening in Searcy and many of the students were in their homes dressing for the event when the storm struck. Many of their number were dead or injured; others found only a pile of twisted timber for their homes and death in their families. Their school buildings were destroyed.
The Arkansas death toll was 131 with 55 from White County, plus 3000 homeless and 711 injured.
L.E. DuLaney1 of Judsonia sat slumped in the corner of a funeral home saying, "I lost everything. I lost everything". His wife died when the store they owned fell in on her. At 3 a.m people were still trailing thru the funeral homes trying to identify the dead.
MONDAY MARCH 24, 1952: Page one of The Arkansas Democrat: "No Time For Tears, Judsonia is rebuilding. The city’s only doctor, Dr. W. R. Felts is in the Arkansas Baptist Hospital, seriously injured along with his wife.”
"Mass funerals were held in Judsonia this morning”. "The town has been closed to traffic by the 153rd national guard. Persons are required to have a pass to enter or leave the city. Two main disaster areas are set up in the Elliott Hotel and the educational building of the First Methodist Church, across the street the only two suitable places available following the tornados.”
The Enterprise Box Factory was heavily damaged but not destroyed.
The Buffalo Strawberry Processing Plant, another of the city’s industries which had been recruited to move to Judsonia largely by Dad as mayor was totally destroyed by the high winds.
[1] Additional details here, here.
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