Oak Lawn Tornado Victims, These Are Their Stories

OAK LAWN, IL -- Before their names belonged to the ages, 33 souls went about their Friday afternoon on April 21, 1967. They were driving home from work, roller skating, stopping for a beer, cashing their paychecks, going out for dinner and grocery shopping when their paths crossed with an EF-4 tornado ripping down Southwest Highway, wreaking havoc in Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park, Hometown and the city’s South Side.

Ten tornadoes would strike northeastern Illinois on what became known as Black Friday. The deadliest spawned late Friday afternoon in Oak Lawn, where the greatest loss of life was recorded. Eighteen people were killed within the one-square block area at 95th Street and Southwest Highway; four people died in the Fairway Super Mart; one person was killed at the Sherwood Forest Restaurant, two at Shoot’s Lynwood Tavern, two waiting for a bus at the Suburban Bus terminal garage, one in her garage, three more at Oak Lawn Roller Rink, and two in the decimated Airway Trailer Court.

The rest of the victims died in cars waiting near 95th Street and Southwest Highway. A veteran of both World Wars suffered a heart attack directing traffic in the aftermath. Another man was electrocuted when he came in contact with a downed electrical line in an alley near 82nd Street and Cottage Grove; and one person was killed in an unknown location, a 60-year-old man from Hometown. In all, 33 deaths were attributed to the Oak Lawn tornado.

The Rev. William McNichols would remark at a requiem Mass for six tornado victims at St. Gerald Church that “the left hand of God touched the village and parish last Friday night but the right arm of God was around most of us to protect us."

Here are the victims’ stories, taken from historical newspapers at the Oak Lawn Public Library’s Local History room:

95th Street and Southwest Highway

Patrick Golden, 39

Golden was a salesman and a devoted husband and father of three. He was killed at the tornado’s epicenter near 95th Street and Southwest Highway. Golden had switched his sedan for a co-worker’s station wagon, so he could take his 12-year-old son and some other boys on a Boy Scout outing that weekend. The delay caused him to be late coming home, putting him in the tornado’s path. Golden’s funeral mass was held at St. Germaine

John Mobley, 46

The father of a blended family of nine children, John Mobley and his 19-year-old son Roger, were on their way home from Union Carbide, where both worked making car door panels at 32nd Street and California Avenue. Father and son saw the funnel cloud a few blocks away. It got so dark “we couldn’t see each other in the car,” Roger said. Mobley pulled over into the lot of a restaurant, when he told his son “hang on it’s going to take us.” The tornado tossed Mobley’s brand new Ford Galaxy into a practice field at Oak Lawn Community High School. Roger knew his father was dead when he climbed out of the twisted metal.

Mobley was a deeply religious man. Two Bibles were recovered intact from the wrecked car. The one kept by his only daughter, Frieda, still has shards of glass from that day. On the day of the funeral, John’s and Roger’s wallets were returned to Chievera’s Funeral Home by an anonymous Good Samaritan, each with a fifty-dollar bill tucked inside.

“I knew John Mobley as a preteen,” said Cindy Mobley, Roger’s wife. “I always liked and admired him. I had no idea that I'd end up as a Mobley myself some day. We have always been sad that our kids and grandkids did not get to know him.”

Edward Griffith, 45

Griffith was an engineering associate for Illinois Bell Telephone Co. in Rolling Meadows. He was half a block from home at 9620 S. Mayfield Ave. His wife, Pearl, and two sons were waiting for him. He was found dead in his badly damaged car nearly Oak Lawn Community High School.

Edward Lipski, 51

Edward Lipski lived at 10012 S, Cicero Ave. in Oak Lawn. His 22-year-old daughter was a Patricia Stevens model. He enjoyed relaxing around his house and was fond of fishing. He would go to Wisconsin and Michigan to fish whenever he could get away.

Patrick Calascibetta, 46

Calascibetta was driving home from work with his son-in-law, where both were employed at a manufacturing plant. He was killed at Southwest Highway and 95th Street. His son-in-law survived and was pulled out alive from the wrecked car. According to a relative, Calascibetta was a “good, quiet family man. His family was his whole life.”

Albert Semaitis, 42 and Albert Kriscunas, 42

Semaitis was a draftsman who lived near 100th Street and Sawyer Avenue in Evergreen Park. Kriscunas was a mechanical engineer from Palos Heights. Both men were from the Lithuanian community in Marquette Park. They knew each other but not well. Their widows recognized each other when they met again in the same funeral home. Their families were forever bonded by the tragedy.

William Hunoway, 47

Hunoway worked in the shipping department for a Bensenville firm that manufactured steel pipes for sewers. He lived on Harnew Road East. Hunoway had a nice house with a big yard. His favorite pastime was puttering in the garden. His funeral Mass was held at St. Linus Church.

Edward Burman, 65

Burman was a salesman for a building materials' manufacturer. He had spent most of the winter recovering from a heart ailment and did not go to work. He was parked at 95th Street and Southwest Highway waiting for his wife, who was a secretary at the Western Avenue Hearing Aid Center. A co-worker offered to drive her as far as the intersection when the tornado struck, killing Edward.

William Welser, 35

Welser and his wife, Annmarie, met a dance at 57th Street and Sacramento. The busy city streets worried Welser. Like many young couples of the day, the family moved to the suburbs where kids could run free. He was carpenter and was on his way home from working a job in Palatine. He was the father of three children.

Bernard Brady, 43, and Bernadette Brady, 8

Bernard and his wife bought their home in Oak Lawn the year before. Mrs. Brady had been out shopping when the storm hit and took shelter in a White Castle. When she got home, her husband and the couple’s three young daughters were gone. Bernard had been driving west on 95th Street to Jewel with the little girls when the storm hit. Two-year-old Cathy and her sister Barbara, 4, turned up in the hospital. A neighbor went to Johnson-Phelps VFW where Bernard and Bernadette’s bodies had been taken. He came back with a priest. Bernadette was in second grade and a Brownie. She was excited about her upcoming First Communion. She was buried in her white dress and veil.

Bernice Andrews, 25

Bernice and Alfred Andrews met in high school. She was a nurse’s aide at Silver Cross Hospital. Alfred drove a forklift for Caterpillar in Joliet. They had two children, ages 5 and 2. Bernice was active in church, where she taught Sunday School and was a member of the junior choir. She had planned to attend the Young People’s Harmony Club banquet Saturday evening. The Andrews had just a bought a puppy for their children. They were driving from their home in Joliet to Oak Lawn, where they were taking the puppy to get its shots at a veterinary office. The tornado rolled their car. Alfred and the children were taken to Little Company of Mary with non-life threatening injuries. Bernice was found dead with the puppy still in her arms.

Annette Clark, 21

Annette Clark worked as a receptionist in a doctor’s office near 87th Street and Cicero Avenue. She was engaged to be married to a soldier serving in Vietnam. They were to have been married in October. She lived in Worth and was driving home from work down Southwest Highway. “She was very pretty,” her sister-in-law said. “She hadn’t an enemy in the world.” Clark was buried out of Our Lady of the Ridge in Chicago Ridge.

Sherwood Forest Restaurant

John Haggan, 51

Haggan lived for many years in the Irish community near 63rd Street and Laflin in Chicago. He was an electrician for Pullman Standard Co. It had always been his dream to own “a little cottage somewhere.” He found his little cottage in Oak Lawn. Haggan planned to celebrate his 52nd birthday the next day by driving his wife home from the hospital. He was killed in the restaurant. Those who had taken shelter in the restaurant’s basement survived.

Oak Lawn Roller Rink

David Nork, 14

David was skating at the Oak Lawn Roller Rink when a wall of the building collapsed down on him. He never regained consciousness. He died two days later of his injuries at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park.

Christine Hinds, 13

At 13, Christine was an old soul. She had dark hair which she wore in bangs and “comforting eyes,” her father told reporters. She earned As and B's at Worth Elementary School. She wanted to go to college. Christine had written to airlines asking for information on becoming an airline stewardess. The Worth girl was an excellent figure skater, who practiced several days a week at the Oak Lawn Roller Rink, but that Friday was the first time she had asked her mother's permission to go skating. Family members believed that Christine had premonitions about her death. At the roller rink before the tornado leveled the building, she told a boy she knew that “no matter what happens, don’t cry for me.” When building began to shake, she was holding the hand of another little girl when she reportedly said, “I think I’m going to die.” More than 300 people attended Christine’s funeral at Schmaedtke-Tuinstra Funeral Home. The pastor called her death “the will of God.”

Charlotte Hanley, 50

Hanley had brought her two daughters to the Oak Lawn Roller Rink. They lived in LaGrange. Both girls survived, but Hanley died when a wall fell in on her. Her funeral Mass was held St. Francis Xavier Church in LaGrange.

Shoot’s Lynwood Tavern

William Jackson, 51

A semi-truck driver, Jackson was off work due to a trucker strike. To make ends meet during the strike, he was working temporarily driving a taxi for an Oak Lawn cab company. He often stopped at Shoot’s Lynwood Table for a beer on his way home from work. Jackson was the father of three adult children and boasted 11 grandchildren.

Catherine Zenner, 15

Catherine was the stepdaughter of Shoot’s Tavern owner Ken Shoot. When the tornado hit, Shoot dived under a pool table when the building fell apart. He was badly injured. Catherine was driving up to the tavern with her mother. Mrs. Shoot survived but Catherine was killed.

Suburban Bus Co.

Helen Atchley, 81, and Edward Nykeil, 54

Atchley was a widow who lived at 4344 S. Francisco Ave. in Chicago. Nykeil was a plant janitor who lived on Moody Avenue in Oak Lawn. They didn’t know each other. Both were waiting for a bus at the Suburban Bus Co. near 95th Street and Southwest Highway.

Fairway Super Mart

Carole Jucius, 22

Jucius met her husband, Frank, at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital where she worked as a laboratory technician. She quit working when her son was born. They moved to Oak Lawn 16 months before, into a house they had built so Frank could be closer to work. Jucius did her grocery shopping Friday nights when her husband returned home with the car. Instead of going to the Jewel Tea Co. Store at 5807 W. 95th St., she stopped at Fairway Super Mart first. When she hadn’t returned home 30 minutes after the tornado struck, Frank went looking for her. Jucius’s purse was found in the Fairway debris. Her body had already been brought to the Johnson-Phelps VFW Post, which had been set up as a temporary morgue.

Joan Casey, 30, Christine Casey, 18 months

Joan was shopping at Fairway Super Mart with her husband, Fred, and their children, Freddie, 7, and 18-month-old Christine. When the store’s plate glass windows flew in, Fred told the Sun-Times he ran with his son toward the back of the store. Joan followed carrying the baby when Fairway’s “humongous roof” came crashing down. Fred and his son crawled out of the debris. He would claw through the rubble well into the night, calling his wife’s name until his voice was gone. A fireman sent him home. The next morning Joan’s body was pulled out of the rubble. She was still holding the baby. At the requiem Mass for six tornado victims at St. Gerald Church, itself badly damaged by the twister, Fr. McNichols told the packed church that “Mrs. Casey and her darling daughter Christine will go home together to God.”

Charles McNeill, 65

McNeill had spent the afternoon painting a chain link fence at his home on Meade Avenue, when he told his wife, Mary, that he was “going to the store to pick up a few things.” McNeill’s son found his father’s car lying wrecked across the street from Fairway Super Mart. His body was found in the Fairway rubble. McNeill had been planning a fishing trip to Canada in May.

Airway Trailer Court

Ernie Gunnarson, 59, and Karleen Gunnarson, 53

When their son grew up and moved away, their house on Chicago’s South Side became too big for Ernie and Karleen Gunnarson to manage. They found a mobile home at the Airway Trailer Court at 91st Street and Cicero Avenue that was just right. The tornado completely leveled the trailer court. Ernie was found dead in the ruins. Karleen was pulled alive from the debris, but died a few days later after brain surgery at Little Company of Mary Hospital.

Elsewhere in Oak Lawn

Harold Cody, 70

Harold Cody had served in both World Wars. His grandparents were farmers and among Oak Lawn’s earliest settlers. The son of a Chicago cop, he grew up in the city and had just moved with his sister, Florence, into a new apartment building at 9524 S. Mansfield in Oak Lawn. The siblings never married. When the storm hit, Harold and Florence lay on the floor of their apartment. A few windows were broken. Cody was a semi-retired insurance adjuster. He was an active man and involved in church and civic activities. He could still swing a golf club. Cody took up a post at Mansfield and 95th Street where he helped to direct traffic until 10 p.m. He collapsed and was taken to the hospital, where he died of a heart attack. During Cody’s funeral Mass at St. Gerald’s Church, Rev. John Lydon said “he died serving others.”

Marjorie Swanson, 40

Marjorie and her husband, Leslie, lived in Oak Lawn for 15 years. They had no children. The couple had been out to dinner and were pulling into their garage at 9311 S. 52nd Ave. when a large tree fell on it. Their neighbors ran to the scene. They pulled away the wreckage where they found Leslie alive in the rubble. Marjorie had been crushed to death underneath the tree.

Other deaths:

Walter Johnson, 60, Hometown
John Martin, 23, Chicago
Grant Miller, 32, Chicago

Read Oak Lawn Patch's anniversary coverage of the 1967 Tornado:

• 1967 Tornado Remembered With Tears, Toasts and Tributes
• Oak Lawn Tornado: 50 Years Later Survivors Recall ‘Black Friday’
• Fifty Years After the Oak Lawn Tornado, Daughter Still Haunted by Dad's Early Death
• Oak Lawn Tornado Survivors: 'God Had A Bigger Plan and It Wasn't Us At the Time'
• Hometowners Plan Community Toast on 50th Anniversary of 1967 Tornado
• 'Voices in the Wind' Exhibit Opens on 50th Anniversary of Oak Lawn Tornado
• Voice of a Tornado (features actual audio recording of 1967 tornado)
• 'Portrait of a Killer': The Story Behind the Infamous Photo of the 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado
• Young Vietnam Marine's Photos Capture Poignant Aftermath of Oak Lawn Tornado
• New Photos of 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado Surface
• Sixth Oak Lawn Tornado Image Discovered
• Remembering Chicago's Big Snow Of 1967