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Virgie Blalock Abercrombie
Clotiele B.
Abercrombie
Loyd D. Abercrombie Sr
John Armstrong
Lola Bento
Lu Campbell
Dorothy Womack Box
Pearl Shaw Holbert
James E. "Ike" Challis
Beaver Cole
Howard Coleman
Cronkite, Walter
Degnan, Julie E.
Erikson, Charles Henry
Ezell, Alta Reigh
Farrell, Hal
Gregory, Doug
Grenley, Martha Rogers
Grigg, Horace
Grigg, William N.
Hannon, Bill
Harris, Howard
Johnson, Joe and Bobby
Lester, George
Lester, George - Playmates
Mayhew, Bessie
McAllister, Mark
Meissner, J. Raymond
Moody, Mildred
Motley, Pete
Nelson, Ron
Plant, Sally
Read, Osceola Jefferson
Robertson, William Judson
Robinson, Jimmie
Mack Thornton Rogers
Ryan, Terri Jo
Stanley, Glenda G.
Taylor, Bob
Taylor, Jim
Thompson, Bill
Vento, Eduardo
Vinson, Allen Earl
Vinson, Melvin
Williams, William B. |
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Melvin Vinson from an email |
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I graduated from London High School in 1955.
I was born about a month after the explosion.
Mama and Daddy lived about a mile east of the
school. Daddy had cut down a dead tree in the
yard and was cutting it up. He heard the
explosion and turned to look. He said he saw
debris in the air above the trees. He dropped
the axe, told Mama he would be back when he got
back and started running to the school. He was
there 2 or 3 days.
I had a first cousin, Mary Emily Lloyd, killed.
She is buried at Pleasant Hill. She was in the
7th grade. Her mother, Annie Loyd (Mrs. Emery
Loyd) was teaching at Gaston when the explosion
happened.
Lena Hunt, a teacher married Mama's cousin. She
and two of her children were killed. The
Maxwells who were killed were distant cousins.
It is said that Lena Hunt was in the back part
of the building that was left standing. Her desk
was backed to a wall. There were 2 students
standing at her desk when the explosion
happened. The wall behind the desk caved in, and
she and the two students were killed. Nobody
else in the room was injured.
Lena is buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery.
Her husband, Charley Hunt (I think) was my
mother's first cousin and never remarried. Her 2
children are there too. |
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William B. William from his son, Terry A.
Williams |
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The following is what my father, William B.
Williams remembers about the New London school
explosion.
I have forgotten the number of miles from Arp,
Texas to New London. I was in study hall, the
last class of the day. Suddenly the floor of our
classroom vibrated. The teacher was passing my
desk and I asked her what that vibration was.
Her answer was that it probably came from one of
the refineries, perhaps there was an explosion
of some kind.
At the same time my father's relief was early to
work, telling what he had heard on the radio. Dad
was home a little early and asked me and my
sister if we wanted to go with him to New London
to see if we could help in some way. We were not
prepared emotionally for what we encountered
there.
It is a scene I've never forgotten. We went to
the least crowded area, in fact no one was in
that section at the time. Several people were
concentrated in one area. Under the rubble we
could see someone's arm up to the elbow. In
futility, we tried to lift the concrete slab but
it was too heavy. In a very short while someone
with a crane and cable came over to assist.
While the crane operator moved the slab we, as
gently as possible, pulled the body of a young
man my age from under the debris. By this time
the area was pretty much filled with rescue
workers. Pulling the body from under the slab
and witnessing was devastating. An announcement
was made that everyone not on a rescue team was
to leave the immediate area so as not to hamper
rescue efforts. I remember trying to help
comfort some people, but it was overwhelming.
The last thing I remember on our way back home
in silence was passing a 36 Chevy under a huge
concrete slab.
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