Comments on: Your Memories of the Oak Lawn Tornado

By: Roger Mobley

Roger Mobley — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:21:19 +0000

I was 19 at the time. My father John Mobley and I were on our way home from work. We were heading south on Southwest Highway. We live at 99th and southwest highway. When we got to the corner of 95th and sw highway we could not see anything. We pulled over in front of the olhs. Our car was picked up and carried over into the practice baseball field. When I came to I realized my dad was dead. I got out of the car and eventually found my way home. My uncle was waiting for us, so when I got there he took me the hospital in Lagrange. Do I remember the day? Yes, very vividly. If anyone reads this from the old neighborhood get in touch with me.

By: frieda

frieda — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:01:49 +0000

My memories, or rather nightmares, of this tornado are that I was 12, living on 99th St. and my father, John Mobley, was killed in this tornado. It was a horrible time for our family and every time I hear warnings I think of that day.

By: bill polich

bill polich — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:20:48 +0000

I lived in the Hometown apartments behind the shopping center on Keeler. I was on leave from the Marine Corps to get married the next day at Our Lady of Loretto church. Right about 5:25 myself and the guy that was going to be an usher at the wedding were on our way to pick up the Best Man just off of 87th place in Hometown when I said to Tom (usher) “There’s a garage flying at us!” And right then a whole garage slammed into the street about 40 yards down from us. The Best Man’s parents saw us and we abandoned the car and ran for the house.
I still got married the next day in about half of a church, no electricity-but the Nun’s sang for us while the National Guard stood guard around my Mom’s apartment “in case of looters.” I tried to tell my new wife jokingly that “This is an omen.” In retrospect, I guess it was – we divorced about 8 years later!

By: gina fracassi mazur

gina fracassi mazur — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:46:56 +0000

I was 12 when i saw the tornado outside our backyard at 89th and 52nd ave in Oak Lawn. One brick of someone’s house flew in our backyard. Ill never forget that horrible day.

By: Steve Bahl

Steve Bahl — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:55:11 +0000

I was 19 years of age and in my 1967 Mustang. I had missed a turn off a main road and pulled into a service station at a 4 way intersection to ask directions. I remember that it had at least 2 service bays and possibly 3 with the usual walking office at the end. I was no more than 4 feet from the building. I had just started to get out and the attendant came out. I asked for directions and as he began to answer he just turned and ran into the office without saying a word. At almost the same time everything went black (dark) and my car started to bounce like a ball with both light and heavy pounding. I slightly opened the windows and as best as I could lie across the bucket seats. Hail and debris filled the air but I do not remember hearing the freight train that many speak of in such storms.
When the noise and rocking stopped I sat up and saw the funnel, about 100 yards or less away, going down the street. The cinder block station that I was 4 feet from was gone for the most part and the attendant was just coming up from I guess a cellar under the station and seemed somewhat surprised to see me. There was an 18 wheeler upside down nearby. There was a 2 story white frame house (judging from the debris) across the street on my side of the 4 way and an older person trying to get help. I crossed the street despite down lines. There was another elder with a compound fracture of the femur. I found a large piece of plastic to cover him and then flagged down a stunned taxi driver and asked him to call his dispatcher for help.
While driving back home I was listening to WLS and there was never any mention of the storm. The next day I went to file a claim on my car and the insurance company had not heard of the storm and accused me of being in some sort of accident. Only after my father got involved was the claim accepted.

By: Victor

Victor — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:57:30 +0000

I can remember that day, almost like it had just happened last week. My sister and I were home at the time. Our mom and stepfather had left for Indiana that morning to visit his family. I was in grade school and my sister was in H.S. I went to Maddock and my sister went to Reavis. Our dad was coming to pick us up that night. So we were just watching TV at the time they were talking about it on the news. I could see the look on her face. She kept saying I wonder where dad’s at, then the wind started up were always told to open the windows and doors, that would help u,s so that’s what we did. We were at the back door when we could see it. There wasn’t a lot of houses around ours at that time so it was a pretty clear view. I remember my sister started crying and so that scared me, too. We could see stuff flying in the air. The sound was pretty loud. If you ever talked into a mic, just blow into it real hard with the speakers up loud, may come close, and kids banging on pots and pans at the same time will give yourself that feeling, and all of a sudden it got quiet. About 45 minutes after that our dad got there to pick us up. We told him about it, and so he wanted to take a ride to see if he could see anything, and so we drove past the roller rink and then the H.S. I remember my sister started crying all over again. My dad had told us everything was gonna be ok. So we headed for Bellwood where he had lived at the time. All weekend we talked about it with him. On Sunday we got home, our mom had not gotten home yet, within 30 min she was home and she was crying because they had to drive through there to get home. She kept on saying that she was glad that we were safe but felt bad for all the people that went through it. Our stepdad had said it looked like a war zone. I am now in my 50s but every time I hear the tornado warnings it takes me back to that day for just a moment. But I guess driving through the one in Plainfield on Rt. 126 doesn’t help much. I just like to ask God to bless the ones that lived and died that day in ‘67 and there families.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:02:12 +0000

I am very surprised that I haven’t come across this site sooner but after you read what I have to say you might understand why! As I remember that day, the weather couldn’t make up it’s mind if it was going to be cold or warm, cloudy or sunny, rain or no rain! The only thing that we were getting ready for later in the evening was the confirmation at St. Geralds for my sister Linda, and our forever neighbors in our hearts Sandy. In all the comments that I have read only one mentioned the St. Gerald’s confirmation. Had that tornado struck an hour later only God knows how many more children would have lost their short lives at that time! Not to mention family members also! I was 10 years old at the time and to this day I still have very vivid dreams about tornados. I feel like the dreams are saying that in “this corner” is me, and in “that corner” is the tornado. Even now when there have been some very serious tornado warnings as I make sure that my family is safe, I go outside to confront my advisory. There have only been two times where I thought that my nemisis was near. The “v” in the sky, and sick color of green that’s low. I don’t hear the sirens going off when I’m outside probably because I’m sublime to it because it’s me against it!

By: Kathleen M Zander

Kathleen M Zander — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:47:02 +0000

I was 6 years old when the tornado hit. We lived on Oak Center Drive, south of 95th Street. I don’t think my mother know it was tornado as my Mom, brother and I were in the living room looking out the window! I remember everthing was a weird, pea-green color. My poor Dad had been working the evening shift at a factory. He had to walk, as you couldn’t drive a car, through several blocks of houses that were totaly destroyed. I remember him saying he was so afraid that his young family had been wiped out. Our house was not hit. There were a couple of kids from my school that were killed at the Roller Rink.

By: Timm Artus

Timm Artus — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:30:16 +0000

I was three years old and the tornado is one of the earliest memories I have. My baby brother, David, had just been born the previous September. So when it got bad, my Mom put us behind a chest of drawers and told me no matter what happened I was to keep on holding the baby. I remember my Mom standing in the doorway and hearing a howling sound.
We lived at 92nd and Central, just a block from St. Gerald’s. The tornado tore throw the church and school then headed towards my mother’s aunt’s home across from the Masonic Lodge on 52nd.
From there, it ripped within a few hundred feet of my Aunt June’s house near 91st and Cicero before destroying the roller rink. She ducked into a closet with her two little children and felt the house rise and then fall. Houses across the street were shorn in half.
After it stopped (but no one knew if more wasn’t coming) my Mom’s brothers came to pick us up and take us to her Aunt Louis Smith’s house, since she had a basement. I still remember climbing down the dark stairs and seeing all those scared kids staring back up at me.
My Dad, working at the Johnson & Johnson plant in Chicago, didn’t even know there’d been a tornado until a shift change. Then he drove as fast as he could home. The National Guard stopped him at Genaro’s Druge Store at 87th and Central. Showing his driver’s license got him a few blocks closer to us, but he had to run the last few blocks due to all the debris in the road.
He got home to find his wife and two sons gone and a baby bottle heating in a pan of water on the stove. Fortunately, his Uncle Clarence lived two housed down and told him we’d gone to Aunt Louise’s house.
My Mom’s Mother, two brothers Ronny and Steve, and another sister Anita, were all visiting from Central City, Kentucky. My Grandfather called for days until he was finally able to get through to Oak Lawn to find out if his wife, five kids, two sons-in-law, and four grandchildren were okay.
My folks have often praise the Mayor Dumke for his tireless work in getting the ruins torn down and new emergency housing in place, and getting the power lines fixed. Even on crutches, he outlasted many workers.
The tornado came so close to us, Aunt Louis’s, and Aunt June’s. The Lord protected all of us in so many ways. It was no surprise that in 2005, Aunt June’s house was again spared in the Newburg, Indiana tornado. Most of homes on her street were destroyed as well as the properties directly behind her home. The Central City Kentucky Tornado of 2007 missed Ronny’s and Anita’s houses, but destroyed the windows and roof of Uncle Steve’s home. Again, none of them nor their families were hurt.

By: Frieda Mobley Wheeless

Frieda Mobley Wheeless — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:19:32 +0000

My worst memory of this tornado was that my father John Mobley was killed in this , he was on his way home from work, he and my brother roger . Roger lived but my dad didn’t make it , it was a horrible day and i can never forget it.