“Determination through Destruction”

Recent retiree Charles McNeill awoke on the morning of April 21, 1967 to a daunting list of nearly a dozen household chores at his kitchen table. Never one to grumble about work, he scanned the list quickly and dove straight into his tasks. Wife, Mary, and son, Jack, were busy in the kitchen when Charles announced that he needed to make a short trip to the hardware store.

Pausing for a moment late that afternoon, he glanced up and finally noticed the far-from-pleasant weather that was developing in the distance. Although he could have easily used this as an excuse to get out of painting his home’s chain-link fence, Charles did not want to disappoint his wife. Seeing the oncoming rain clouds, he dashed into his car and peeled away from the house, never to see his beloved family again.

A half an hour later, Jack sprinted down the side of 95th Street, nervously dodging upended busses and demolished debris. Reaching the Fairway supermarket, he saw the familiar shape of his father’s Ford Fairlane wrecked in a nearby parking lot. Slumping down besides the demolished vehicle, Jack put his face in his hands and awaited the police sirens, whose present wailing grew louder with each passing second.

Charles McNeill’s body would be found hours later amid debris inside the grocery store. By the end of that terrible night, another 31 white sheets would be draped over the storm’s victims.

The first cyclone touched down in Belvidere, some 65 miles northeast of Chicago. What would come to be known as the Oak Lawn Tornado was only one of seven twisters that covered a 75-mile front across Northern Illinois. The National Weather Service issued pressing tornado warnings for Lake, Will, and Cook counties, but many experts assumed that the weather system would diminish in intensity by the time it reached Southland. But by 5 p.m. that evening, the skies just south of Oak Lawn darkened and began hurling hail and rain down onto Hickory Hills.

At 5:24 p.m., the funnel cloud touched down near 105th Street and Kean Avenue in Palos Hills, smashing through housing developments and businesses alike, the storm retracted to tree height before reforming on the outskirts of Oak Lawn. The Weather Bureau office in Chicago had issued an imminent tornado warning for the village, but power lines and radio dispatches were cut short when two communication towers collapsed in Chicago Ridge from the storm’s powerful winds.

95th  Street, normally one of the busiest arteries feeding into Oak Lawn, was jammed with cars trying to flee the storm. As the cyclone reached the peak of his intensity, it slammed headlong into the intersection at Southwest Highway, where it claimed the lives of at least ten residents. Restaurants and stores along the road, crammed with bystanders, were mercilessly battered with rain and golf-ball sized hail.

Tearing through the Suburban Bus Depot, the storm tossed massive trailer hitches with little effort. When rescuers finally made their way to the depot hours later, they were amazed to find three busses piled directly on top of each other. Numerous vehicles on the ill-fated 95th Street were thrown by the storm onto the depot grounds, creating a gnarled mess of twisted metal and burnt concrete.

Along the 9300 block of Central Avenue, the twister partially demolished the rectory and school at . Huddled inside the convent basement, nuns and residents retreated to the basement as the tornado decimated nearby homes. With an animal-like determination, it cut across Cicero Avenue, destroying the Oak Lawn Roller Rink and the Airway Trailer Park. After cutting a mile-long swath of destruction through town, the tornado jumped yet again and roared on towards Homewood.

By 5:40 p.m., the storm blew out over Lake Michigan, finished with its destructive work. At 6:30 that evening, the National Weather Service issued an “all clear” broadcast for the entire Chicago area.

The storm may have been gone, but the real work for the people of Oak Lawn had just begun. Mayor Fred Dumke frantically placed calls to any and all emergency services in the immediate area. The received over 13,000 radio transmissions and more than 8,000 phone calls over the next 24 hours. Chief Al Harker, along with his men, sped off into all directions, fanning out to put out the fires ignited by collapsing buildings.

Taking 12-hour shifts, police and firemen put in nearly 54,550 man-hours of work during the next five days. Assisted by helpful residents, they pulled dozens of people out from demolished homes. Initially overwhelmed, Oak Lawn’s finest were amazed when more than 92 different fire and police departments, from downtown Chicago, to faraway Michigan responded to Harker’s call for volunteers. This much-needed support gave Harker’s men a chance to catch a scant few hours of sleep in the back of their fire engines.

Per Dumke’s prodding, Illinois Governor Otto Kerner declared Oak Lawn a disaster area and petitioned President Lyndon Johnson for support. Hundreds of National Guardsmen, mostly from the 108th Engineer Battalion, arrived in Oak Lawn atop military trucks and jeeps. Setting up a perimeter around the entire village, they redirected traffic and checked the identification of anyone trying to enter the village. Determined to preserve law and order at any cost, Cook County Sheriff Joseph Woods dictated a controversial “shoot to kill” order to officers that encountered any looters. Luckily, no gunshots were heard that night.

As rescuers began to uncover the storm’s victims, Christ Community Hospital reported to Dumke that its overstretched staff could not handle any more patients. Thinking quickly, Oak Lawn emergency responders set up a temporary morgue at the Johnson-Phelps VFW lodge while the National Guard established field aide stations at strategic locations.

In an outstanding display of grit and determination, residents themselves rose to the challenge and helped each another. The Mid-America Motel, located just off Cicero Avenue, opened its doors to the dispossessed. ROTC cadets and Lions Club members drove the debris-strewn streets, picking up lost children and reuniting them with their parents.

Those in uniform worked shoulder-to-shoulder with their neighbors. As wreckage was slowly removed, Mayor Dumke was a constant presence, coordinating relief efforts as he traveled back and forth across the village. In the weeks following the tornado, he borrowed more than $250,000 from local banks to purchase trailers for those that had lost their homes. Under his close supervision, village officials steadily rebuilt Oak Lawn.

Over 300 homes and apartments were completely destroyed by the twister. More than 60 businesses were beyond repair and were eventually condemned by the village. Between April 21s and 25, volunteers marked unstable building for demolition. Although Oak Lawn received ample federal and state support, residents themselves rolled up their sleeves and revitalized their community through good, old-fashioned elbow grease.

Throughout the week Oak Lawn Patch will be observing the 44th anniversary  of the devastating tornado of April 21, 1967, that not only put Oak Lawn on the map, but almost blew it off. This is the first of a four-part series.

Also visit the Oak Lawn Library's online photographic exhibit on the , to whom Patch is grateful for the assistance of local history coordinator Kevin Korst.