Blog no. 15

On January 10-11, 1963, in the formerly small town of Spring Hill, TN, disaster happened. A tornado had torn through the city and destroyed many buildings and houses in its path. Thankfully, nobody was hurt during the tornado, but the damage to their homes and businesses were horrific. 

In this blog, I will be sharing the stories that were put into the book Spring Hill Everybody Has a Story by the people who remembered the tornado and how terrible it was.

“It was January 10, 1963, the only time of my life that I ever left my home economics room without cleaning it. I thought to myself that I could lock the door and nobody could get in. Then I’d get in early the next morning and clean, and nobody would ever know. That night the tornado hit Spring Hill. When I got to my classroom the next day, I found the entire Board of Education standing in my dirty kitchen looking at flour scattered all over the place.” – Jean R. Evans, former Home Economics teacher for the Spring Hill High School, page 13.

“On January 10, 1963, a tornado came through Spring Hill destroying the old Wayside Inn, doing considerable damage to the chemistry department at the school, and doing some damage to the main school building. Mrs. M. H. Wright remembers going into her room and finding a huge log from the old Wayside Inn.” – Kris Thacker, page 93.

“THE TORNADO AND DR. TOMMY KINNARD—The Spring Hill tornado is not all that far back, but this story is so funny that I just have to tell it. It occurred sometime between twelve and two o’clock at night. Out at my house and Early’s Honey Stand, it didn’t blow hard enough to blow your hat off. We didn’t know anything about the tornado till about seven o’clock the next morning. Mr. Terry Parks and his wife lived in a small house I owned, and Terry worked for me in my business. Terry owned a home on Lake Avenue, right next door to Dr. Tommy Kinnard. The police were at each end of town directing traffic, and a strict “no sight seeing” order was in effect. Being in the mail order business I just had to try to get to the post office to pick up my mail. Terry asked me to try to get on through town to check on his house on Lake Avenue. The policeman knew me and Terry, so I didn’t have too much trouble in securing permission to do so. My wife Edith, went with me. Picking up my mail, we went over to Lake Avenue to check Terry’s house for damage. There was none. Less than five hundred feet up the street, two home had been destroyed and big trees uprooted. We didn’t see any sign of life at Dr. Kinnard’s house. So we were just walking around his house, looking for damage, when the front door opened and Dr. Tommy came out in his housecoat with a sleepy look on his face. With a puzzled look on his face, he said “Wont you and Edith come in?” “I guess not,” I replied. “We were just looking for any damage to your house.” “Damage? What damage?” He said. “From the tornado,” I replied. “What tornado?” He said, with a surprised look in his face. Right across the street as far as the eye could see were buildings blown down and huge trees blown over. Bulldozers were pushing things around and scores of chain saws were sounding like mad hornets. National Guard trucks and equipment were everywhere When he asked, “What tornado?” I replied by just pointing to the war-zone-like destruction before him. He studied the scene for about fifteen seconds, then grabbed his glasses out and put them on. His mouth flew open in surprise. He started yelling, “Virginia, come here. There’s been a  tornado!” And his wife had slept right through the whole storm!” – Erskine Early, page 122.

 There are more stories about the January 10-11, 1963 Spring Hill tornado and you can read them in the Spring Hill Everybody Has a Story book. You can check the book out at the Spring Hill Public Library in Spring Hill, TN.

Many people remember the tornado and how much it impacted their lives. A lot of the city of Spring Hill, TN was destroyed during the tornado, but some businesses and homes were rebuilt afterwards.