The streets of Poplar Bluff regularly bear visitors, cars, and foot traffic. The roads appear quiet and uneventful, belying another load they carry — history.
Local historian Kati Ray also carries that message, leading walking history tours of the city in the anniversary month of the 1927 tornado.
On May 9, 97 years ago, avenues like Broadway, Vine and Main became the epicenter of human tragedy and survival.
Leading the group from the starting point at the tornado victims’ memorial by the Mo-Ark Railroad Museum, Ray detailed stories like the Brown family’s.
The mother and father went into town, leaving their seven children with a grandmother at the homestead. When they returned, four children and the grandmother were dead. The other three were severely injured.
According to Ray, 146 children lost a parent, 92 parents lost a child, and a total of 86 people died as a result of the twister’s path of destruction in Butler County. A further 12 died just over the Arkansas border.
The large parking lots across Fifth Street from the Black River Coliseum were once home to a bustling railyard and a car dealership where several were killed. Moving the group along, she stopped at the corner of Cherry Street and Broadway.
“South Broadway was ground zero of this event,” Ray retold.
She detailed the dense mosaic of cafes, hotels and other businesses formerly on the road. The hotel where the United Gospel Rescue Mission now sits hosted a curious coincidence of two former spouses.
The pair had divorced and remarried other people yet were oddly found dead together in the hotel. According to the woman’s family, she was just going out for a hair appointment.
“Now, I don’t know. I wasn’t there,” Ray remarked. “It seems suspicious.”
The tornado’s path seemed to spare or destroy buildings at random. The old post office on Broadway survived yet the courthouse around the corner was damaged beyond repair.
Ray took the opportunity to debunk an urban legend surrounding the Hay’s Music Store building. Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence the location was used as a temporary morgue.
She stated two undertakers were just down the road on Vine Street and could possibly be the source of the rumor. The second floor was used as a temporary courthouse, however.
Ray brought the group to the bridge where Vine becomes Bartlett Street. In 1927, Ray said this was the only bridge across the Black River in the city and was dotted with houseboats.
Across the river, “The East Side had many homes damaged,” she recounted.
Returning to the tornado memorial, Ray reflected on the victims.
“We have no way of knowing what these 86 people would have contributed,” she said.
She described countless hours of research and trips to gravesites it took to get a full picture of what happened all those decades ago.
The conclusion of the tour was met with applause and expressions of gratitude. The walk spanned just over a mile but encompassed 97 years of history, following an event that changed Poplar Bluff forever.