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By ERIC JOHNSON
DETROIT, April 22 (UPI) _ In the wake of
the Colorado killings, an elderly survivor of the worst school massacre on U.S. soil
is speaking publicly about her experience for the first time.
In an interview with UPI today, 85-year-old
M. Josephine Vail described painful memories of the 1927 explosion that killed 45
people _ 38 children and seven adults _ at the Bath School in Bath, Mich., about
100 miles west of Detroit.
Vail says she vividly remembers "the
loud explosion and kids hollering....You never forget."
Vail was 13 years old when a local farmer
with a grudge used dynamite to blow up the two-story building. She was injured and
her 7-year-old brother, Ralph, was killed.
Vail survived because she was outside the
building. Her leg was hit by shrapnel when the bomber, Andrew Kehoe, detonated his
dynamite-packed pickup truck minutes after the school exploded. The truck blast killed
Kehoe and two other men who were trying to stop him.
Before destroying the school, Kehoe killed
his wife and burned their farmhouse.
Vail remembers Kehoe as a former school
board treasurer who was "real friendly" and often greeted children outside
the school.
But Kehoe clashed with the school superintendent
and other board members. And he was angry about the taxes on his farm that helped
pay for the school, built just four years before the blast.
Vail says her father was among those who
rushed to the bloody scene to retrieve bodies, help the 58 injured and remove "bushels
of dynamite" that did not detonate. She says body parts were scattered around
the site.
That day Vail says she was excused from
classes. But she had accompanied her little brother to the building "so he wouldn't
be lonely." She did not go inside because he was afraid of being teased.
Like other local survivors, Vail says the
memories have been too painful to discuss publicly. But this week's deaths at a Colorado
high school moved her to speak.
Springtime is especially difficult. The
Bath School exploded on May 18 and she says, "It always bothers me this time
of year."
When asked what comfort she could offer
to the victims' families in Colorado, Vail said "You gotta just have faith,
you gotta be strong and go on, and take care of other people."
She says survivors of the Columbine school
rampage "will never forget it in their lifetime, but they just gotta go on."
A memorial plaque now stands at the explosion
site. Vail says, "I don't like to go down there."
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Copyright 1999 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
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