Kathy Chappell
from an email

In 1937 my grandfather was editor of the Henderson newspaper. On March 18 he called the principal of the New London school for information for the paper pertaining to the next day's Inter-scholastic Meet in Henderson. About the time they started talking the principal said wait a minute. He came back on the line and said something like, "Dean, something terrible has happened here. I think it's an explosion. We need a lot of doctors, nurses, ambulances out here quick. It looks like there are dead children everywhere."

My grandfather, James Lawrence Dean, immediately called for these things from Dallas, Houston, and all small towns, but I think he called the large cities first, knowing they could send more. Since 1900, when he was 17, he had been a news stringer for the Associated Press. In 1907 he joined the United Press. He was the first one that got the story out to the news wires. He also called the Red Cross.

Then he went over to the Henderson Radio Station and broadcast appeals for ambulances and volunteers with cars to go to New London and drive the parents around to hospitals and morgues to find their children.

His two youngest children, James, 21, and Ivan, 16, hitched a ride on an ambulance going to New London where they helped dig in the rubble all night. I was 10 at the time and I went with my family to the memorial. Those kids were about my age and it made an indelible impression on me. Before that I didn't know that children died.