Sixth Oak Lawn Tornado Image Discovered

Throughout the week Patch is reprising some of its favorite stories marking the anniversary of the Oak Lawn Tornado on April 21, 1967. This story, originally posted in April 2013, recounts the discovery of a sixth image of the tornado shot by an Evergreen Park art teacher.

The media footprint of the infamous Oak Lawn Tornado that tore through Oak Lawn and clipped Hometown, Evergreen Park and Beverly in 1967 expanded with the discovery of a sixth image in the archives of Oak Lawn Public Library.

Unlike today’s storm chasers who dash across the plains capturing tornados on digital cameras, or ordinary citizens recording and photographing breaking news with smart phones, images of the 1967 tornado are extremely rare.

The only EF4 tornado known to hit the Chicago region, five images of the Oak Lawn Tornado are known to exist, along with a five-minute audio recording of the actual storm blowing over Oak Lawn.

The photograph shot by Peter B. Crombie was published in the Suburban Economist on April 30, 1967, and illustrated the article, “Rebuilding Pushed in High Gear.”

Oak Lawn Library historian Kevin Korst found the image in the library’s microfiche collection of historic local newspapers while doing research for the Images of America book, The Oak Lawn Tornado of 1967.

Crombie, who resided in Oak Lawn and taught art at Central Junior High School in Evergreen Park, snapped a picture of the funnel cloud at 5:29 p.m. April 21, 1967, from his backyard in the 5100 block of 88th Street.

By then the storm had already touched down at 95th Street and Southwest Highway, where the greatest loss of life occurred—claiming 18 lives--and was roaring east along Southwest Highway toward Hometown and Evergreen Park.

Other known images include two by Elmer C. Johnson, a community newspaper publisher who was picking up an ad for his paper at the Southfield Plaza at 87th Street and Harlem Avenue. Seeing the tornado take shape on what is now the site of Moraine Valley Community College, Johnson snapped off two shots with his always-present Roloflex camera, looking south down Harlem.

Johnson, whose lurid black-and-white “Portrait of a Killer” landed on the front page of the Chicago American, told the newspaper: “I opened the lens way up and shot. It was moving so fast I kept losing the funnel behind the buildings."

Ron Bacon’s color slide of the tornado looming up behind the former Dominick’s at 87th Street and Cicero Avenue before it flattened the Oak Lawn Roller Rink and Airway Trailer Park, appeared in the May 5, 1967 issue of Life Magazine.

In 2011, an Oak Lawn resident who had bought Bacon’s old house, came across a box of color slides of the aftermath of the tornado. The resident donated them to the Oak Lawn Library. Among the rediscovered slides were two more images of Bacon's "green monster" and several dozen of the wreckage.

Crombie’s is the sixth known photo of the actual funnel, which exists only in the Suburban Economist microfiche.

Crombie passed away in August 2002, according to an obituary search. The former art teacher and his late wife, Virginia, raised two sons in Oak Lawn. He was also a member of Johnson-Phelps VFW Post 5220.

It was incredibly brave of Crombie to stand in his back yard and take a picture of the tornado passing by, which appears to be only a few blocks away. No doubt, his wife was yelling at him to get in the basement.

The Oak Lawn Library would like to reach Peter Crombie’s family, if possible, to scan the original photograph if it exists. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the original photo is asked to contact Kevin Korst at kkorst@olpl.org.

Read more about the 1967 tornado:

• Voice of a Tornado

• Young Vietnam Marine's Photos Capture Poignant Aftermath of Oak Lawn Tornado
• New Photos of 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado Surface

• Hometown Celebrates 60 Years of 'Modern Day Suburbia'

• Share your pictures and thoughts in the comments.

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