SPC Stats
Path length: 3.6 miles
Width: 500 yards
Fatalities: 5
Injuries: 25
Rating: F4
County: Muskogee
Tornado Path
SPC coordinates: 35.55 / -95.32 End: 35.58/ -95.27
Corrected coordinates Based on Damage Reports in Newspapers and Analysis of USGS Imagery:
Start: 35.594824 / -95.359962 End: 35.589468 / -95.287330
Note: Exact tornado path may not be straight and/or continuous.
Summary
Keefeton, Oklahoma, is an unincorporated community located on U.S. Highway 64, ten miles south of downtown Muskogee. On May 26, 1973, the roadside town of approximately 400 people was nearly wiped out by an estimated F4 tornado. This summary will detail the destruction and tragic loss of life through personal stories gathered from numerous newspaper accounts. It will also highlight how this small community rallied to help one another in their time of need. Many thanks to T. Speck Plunkett, Keefeton Volunteer Fire Department Chief. He was 16 when the tornado struck his hometown. He shared his story with us and confirmed the locations of some of the homes and businesses that were destroyed.
Per the Storm Prediction Center, eight tornadoes occurred on this day in Oklahoma. The twister that plowed through Keefeton was the strongest. According to the database from the National Weather Service in Norman, OK, the tornado developed a quarter of a mile west-southwest of downtown Keefeton. It moved to the east-northeast and ended three miles ENE of town. A corrected track was found using a combination of damage reports and old vertical aerial photos. USGS imagery from before the event in December 1972 and February 1973 was compared to aerials from March of 1980, which indicated stark changes in tree cover and building locations along a defined swath. Our path shows a starting point west-northwest of Keefeton. The tornado moved east-southeast, then east through town and out through the open countryside to just south of Spaniard Creek. The path length was 4.18 miles.
I didn’t realize what it was. There was a big roar.
I never saw a funnel as such, just a huge cloud that flipped down on the ground. And it was twisting and turning all right.
It was a red storm. I guess it had dirt coming off the mountain, and maybe winter leaves in it, too.
Most agreed that even if the town had had some sort of warning system, it would not have helped. The tornado descended too abruptly.
It was a Saturday afternoon around 4:30 pm CT. Some residents of Keefeton were meeting up in town to talk about the latest happenings. Others were “sawing logs” on their couch. One couple attended a funeral and had just arrived home. Charles Dornan had been working all day re-potting plants at several large greenhouses. He worked for W.E. Rowsey of Muskogee as his personal horticulturist. He left work at 4:30 pm CT. Around that same time, Charles’ daughters Goldie, 17, and Linda, 11, hopped into the family station wagon and drove to Jess McLain’s store and filling station. They picked up a gallon of milk. Linda brought in two cartons of empty soda bottles and received in return 30 cents. The Dornan family were all at home together when they saw a change in the weather conditions. It was a little before 5 pm.
John L. Stone, managing editor of the Muskogee Phoenix, was traveling northwest on U.S. 64 when he ran into a heavy rainstorm. Just south of Keefeton, the shower of rain transformed in a matter of seconds into something far more threatening. In a story that ran in numerous newspapers across the country a day or two after the event, John was quoted as saying, “I thought it had passed and sped up, but suddenly saw this huge cloud coming from the southwest. When I saw debris flying out of the sides of the storm, I took to the ditch.” John said he didn’t see a funnel, “just a huge cloud that flipped down on the ground. And it was twisting and turning all right.” Stone drove his car into a ditch on U.S. 64 and watched the tornado pass right in front of him and over Keefeton.
Chief T. Speck Plunkett, who was 16 in 1973, told us in an interview that he left Vida’s Store just southwest of Freewill Baptist Church in downtown Keefeton just before 5:00 pm. He made his way to his home off Elm Grove Road by traveling north on 25th Street. His house was located about a mile and a half north of town. As soon as he arrived, he met up with his parents, who were on the front porch looking south. In our interview with Chief Plunkett, he stated that what brought his folks outside was the sound of a big freight train. “It sounded like this train was running into everything!” Chief Plunkett described what the tornado looked like as they gazed their eyes south toward Keefeton. “It looked like a bunch of fingers. It didn’t really look like a big funnel cloud. It was like some black fingers waving through the air.”
Meanwhile, Charles Dornan, his wife Sue, and their three daughters, Goldie, Linda, and Beverly, age 14, decided to leave their home and head to a large community shelter, the old abandoned Keefeton School. It was located about ¾ of a mile southeast of their residence. Chief Plunkett stated in our interview that the Dornan family drove down South 20th Street East. Based on newspaper accounts and Chief Plunkett, Charles and his family followed his cousin James Dornan, his wife, and three teenage sons. They were only a quarter-mile away from the shelter when they stopped to pick up James’ in-laws, Charlie and Bonnie Nail, and their 20-year-old son, Ricky. In the Lawton Constitution on May 28, 1973, James Dornan stated, “They were following me to the shelter a half-mile away and we stopped to get my in-laws and when it passed I rose from the floor of our car. Their pickup was gone.”
Tragically the Dornan’s truck was enveloped by the massive funnel. The crumpled cab was found upside down a few hundred yards away in Harvey Purdum’s junkyard. The hood of the truck was located approximately a half-mile away on the property of Eddie Briggs. Charles, Sue, and Linda were killed instantly. Beverly died at Muskogee General Hospital. The eldest daughter, Goldie, miraculously survived. The home the Dornan family left was still intact, with only a few shingles missing from the roof.
The Lawton Constitution documented that the windows of James Dornan’s car were smashed. The family had minor cuts. Charlie, Bonnie, and Ricky Nail never left their home. “It was just unbelievable,” said Charlie in an article in the Sapulpa Daily Herald on May 28, 1973. “The front door started to shake, and I tried to close it tight. It blew down and pinned me underneath. The rest of my family was on the floor, and the wind was blowing them around in circles. It ripped the rug off the floor out from underneath them, and it tore the front of my shirt off.” Charlie, Bonnie, and Ricky all received injuries that led them to the hospital. Charlie had broken ribs. He only stayed in the hospital one night and returned to his demolished home with his other son Charles Jr. and two grandsons to salvage what they could. “I worked 64 years and lost it in two or three minutes.”
Harvey Purdom, 70, owned a filling station, junkyard, and home on Main Street, which is the same as U.S. 64. His properties were smashed by the twister. Harvey, his wife Cleta, and his mother Della were all injured. The women recovered from their injuries. Sadly, Harvey died at the hospital.
Anna and Odus Evans owned and operated a general store in downtown Keefeton. Anna told their story to the Five Star News on June 2, 1993. “It was so dark and hazy looking. Odus and I were going away on a trip, and the kids were going to stay and take care of the business and our home (which was attached to the store). Odus was bringing in the tomatoes and other items that were on a cart that we had set outside earlier in the day. Looking out the west window, all I saw was a gray wall. The lights behind the counter were acting just as if they were on fire. I guess that was the result of the storm messing with the electricity. I hollered at Odus to get in with the cart. I then went and laid down by the pop cart with my head to the south and covered my eyes up. Odus had made it inside and laid down on the floor in an area where the floor was missing.”
The twister struck the Evans General Store with a mighty force. Anna recalled what happened next. “The next few minutes, I was dumb-founded, and when I finally was alert and prepared to get up, my head was facing to the north. I looked over to where Odus laid, and all I saw was a big pile of canned goods and other items piled on top of him. The store was completely gone. I was so thankful that the kids hadn’t made it to the store because they probably would have been killed.”
Anna was covered in glass and coated in soot from the stove. People in the community rushed to the store to help the couple. They were able to dig Odus out of the rubble. His main injury was a nasty cut on his arm. The contents of the store were tossed all along Main Street and into surrounding fields. It was noted in the June 2, 1993, Five Star News article that some pictures from the store and home were found at Lake Tenkiller, 16 miles away.
Neighbors and friends came to gather up what they could. Per the Lawton Constitution on May 28, 1973, “About 15 people helped him [Odus] box his goods – battered cans of soup, still unopened; boxes of cereal, some unbroken light bulbs, two water-stained mattresses from his living quarters behind the store – all this and much more went into friends’ pickups.” At the store, Odus had an antique horse-drawn buggy. It was demolished. In an article in the Daily Oklahoman on May 27, 1973, Odus said, “I never got to ride in it. I wanted to ride it when I retired on a ranch.” The Evans General Store was never rebuilt. Anna and Odus lived with their daughter Shirley for two months after the disaster and then in the home of their son Leamon. On December 29, 1973, they settled into their brand new residence.
Leamon Evans lived across the highway from his parent’s general store with his wife, Karen. She was nine months pregnant with their first child. The Five Star News interviewed Karen on June 2, 1993. “It seemed so hot, muggy and windy all that day. We were preparing to go across the highway to take over the store so Leamon’s parents could go on a trip they had planned. I realized that something was wrong when our two dogs, who hated each other, were standing next to each other. Leamon came in and pushed me down in the bedroom wall, shielding me with his body. I vividly remember that the inside of a window air conditioner on the far wall started coming towards us, just like in a horror movie, in slow motion, before that wall collapsed on it. I just know that the insides of that air conditioner would have killed both of us.”
Karen, Leamon, and baby-to-be emerged safely from their crumpled home. They ran across the street to help Odus and Anna at the store. In the Five Star News article, Karen stated that she had a cut on her leg that she “was not aware of until much later.” The two dogs lived, but sadly Leamon lost several of his horses. One was cut up badly and blinded. In an article by The Oklahoman from May 23, 1993, it was noted that the shoes were pulled off him. Sadly, the horse passed away. Only a mare and her colt survived.
Chief Plunkett told us that he and his Dad hopped into their truck after the tornado had roared away from Keefeton. They drove west on Elm Grove Road, picked up U.S. 64, and headed south. A mile and a half away, they came face to face with utter devastation. “Keefeton was no longer there.” He remembered the difficulty of navigating the highway due to all the debris in the road. Chief Plunkett then shared that he saw a horse standing in a pasture not far from Evans store. It had been impaled with a two-by-four. He expressed that he did see some bodies in a field. Plunkett also shared with us that the water tower in Keefeton, located just off U.S. 64, was thrown over a half-mile to the east in a field.
“It’s a mess. I hope my insurance is good.” That quote was from Lesly Adney in The Daily Oklahoman on May 28, 1973. He was interviewed while standing amidst the remains of his demolished mobile home. The paper stated his dwelling was scattered “over three or four acres of land. Clothes hung on a fence row 200 yards from where the trailer once stood. The trailer frame rested some 250 yards away.” Lesly had several horses. Tragically, the bodies of three of his horses were blown out of the pasture about a half-mile. Another injured horse had to be euthanized.
Ponie McCrary and his Dad, Teasie, were traveling back home after spending time in Muskogee. They decided to stop at the Evans General Store. Teasie was the brother of Anna Evans. Ponie tells his story to the Five Star News in the June 2, 1993 edition. “We weren’t there with Anna, Odus and Clarence Hyslope ten minute when the storm came out of the southwest. We didn’t know how bad it was going to be until a rooftop came rolling by on his edge. I had a new El Camino pickup. Dad jumped in and hollered for me to join him. Dad then drove over to a building nearby. We then saw Leamon’s trailer spinning in the air and then the concrete blocks of the building caved in on us.”
That trailer was one used for livestock, and it was found after the storm behind the general store. Teasie and Ponie climbed out of the totaled truck and ran into the store to help those trapped. “If it hadn’t been for that building falling over on top of us, we would’ve been blown away,” Ponie said in the May 25, 2008 edition of the Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat.
Freewill Baptist Church was flattened by the tornado. This is Chief Plunkett’s church, and he said at that time the building was just “a single structure, a small building…” and the tornado “took it to the ground.” The congregation was devastated by the loss, but they decided to rebuild. Chief Plunkett worked alongside other members to construct an even bigger place of worship, and they held services again within six months of the tornado.
Eddie and Ardyce Briggs owned 160 acres of land to the north and northeast of U.S. 64. Their residence was approximately a half-mile from downtown Keefeton. Ardyce was home when the tornado plowed through their property. She had sheltered in the cellar and surfaced uninjured. Per an article from the May 28, 1973 edition of the Lawton Constitution, the damage was extensive at the Briggs homestead. “A summer kitchen used for canning had been demolished and a three-room granary, a chicken house, two-car garage, and a barn were blown away.” Debris from homes and businesses hit in Keefeton were scattered across the acres upon acres of land the Briggs couple owned. There were at least six 55-gallon oil drums in the yard. Ardyce’s sister surveyed the debris and said, “I wonder where these bedsprings came from. And here’s a tree I never saw before.”
“What scares me is those two steel towers that fell just in front of the front yard, and we couldn’t get out by auto because it had us hemmed in,” said Ardyce in the Lawton Constitution. She is talking about Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company (OG&E) 100-foot steel towers that were mounted on their property. Per the newspaper article, “They were designed to withstand 150-mile per hour winds, the engineers said. But there they were on the ground Sunday. One of the nine-ton towers had been sheared at the foundation. Just cut right off four two-foot by two-foot concrete pilings that were sunk 14 feet into the ground. That tower windmilled about the three 2-1/2 inch thick power cables several times before breaking off and crashing to the ground 150 feet from its foundation. The other tower buckled and an OG&E crew from Oklahoma City cut it away so they could replace the towers temporarily with six 100-foot wooden poles.”
Larry Russell, disaster chairman for the Tulsa Red Cross, reported to The Lawton Constitution in an article from May 28, 1973, an official tally of the damage at Keefeton. “Of the 50 houses estimated to be in Keefeton before the tornado hit, there were eight that had been destroyed, four suffered major damage, and nine had minor damage. Four mobile homes were destroyed, and there was one with major damage. Eight farm buildings were demolished, and six had major damage. There were 25 families who suffered a major loss.”
In the days and weeks after the tornado, the people of Keefeton came together to meet the needs of the community. Chief Plunkett said, “everybody pitched in and tried to help people with clothes and whatever it took…groceries. They were really good about that. I don’t know of anybody who didn’t help. If somebody needed something at that point in time, somebody either had it or if they didn’t have it, they went out and got it for them. The community all stuck together and tried to help especially the families that lost their loved ones and of course Goldie was in the hospital for quite awhile and people were checking on her and making sure everything was good there. The community really went together on that.”
Goldie Dornan Jackson was interviewed in a May 23, 1993 article for The Oklahoman. It had been 20 years since she lost her entire family. She was living with her husband Willis and their two daughters in the same home she lived in as a teenager. Chief Plunkett stated in our interview that Goldie now lives in another house but on the same land.
In the article, Goldie said she barely remembers anything from that day. “I could remember that day – in the morning, I guess. We went to the malt shop.” Other than that, she only recalls what people told her while she was in the hospital. And it was several days after the event before she learned the fate of her family. “I don’t remember how I reacted. It was real funny – they told me, but it was like I already knew it, that type of feeling.“ After being released from the hospital, Goldie stayed with her aunt in Muskogee and then returned to live at the house in Keefeton. She then finished her senior year at Warner High School.
Chief Plunkett has lived in Keefeton almost his entire life. He said in 1973, the town did not have a fire station. “The 1973 tornado caused three men to get together and form the Keefeton Volunteer Fire Department so we would have emergency vehicles and things to have in case of another incident like this. It took devastation, but now we have one of the best fire departments there is in the area, because of that ’73 tornado.”
In Loving Memory
Charles Dornan, 43
Sue Dornan, 34
Beverly Dornan, 14
Linda Dornan, 11
Harvey Purdom, 70
Sources:
May 1973 Storm Data Publication
NCDC Storm Events Database Entry-Muskogee County
Grazulis, Thomas P. (1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. Page 1141.
The Gateway to Oklahoma History.
T. Speck Plunkett
Austin American-Statesman – Austin, TX – May 28, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20342839/
Big Basin Herald – Muldrow, OK – May 31, 1973. https://newspaperarchive.com/ada-sunday-news-may-27-1973-p-1/
Etter, J. (1993, May 23). Keefeton Survivor Blanks out memory of fatal ’73 storm. The Oklahoman. https://www.oklahoman.com/article/2431415/keefeton-survivor-blanks-out-memory-of-fatal-73-storm
Five Star News: Wednesday, August 26, 1992. https://dc.library.okstate.edu/digital/collection/FiveStar/id/843/rec/3
Five Star News: Wednesday, June 2, 1993. https://dc.library.okstate.edu/digital/collection/FiveStar/id/883/rec/1
McMahan, L 2008, ‘Storm 35 years ago changed community forever’, Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat (OK), 25 May, (online NewsBank).
Okmulgee Daily Times – Okmulgee, OK – May 30, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/image/750408653/
Sapulpa Daily Herald – Sapulpa, OK – May 28, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/image/661826451/
Sapulpa Daily Herald – Sapulpa, OK – June 14, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/image/661888100/
Spaulding cspaulding@muskogeephoenix, C 2019, ‘Church celebrates with Ole Timers Day’, Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat (OK), 15 Sep, (online NewsBank).
The Ada Sunday News – Ada, OK – May 27, 1973. https://newspaperarchive.com/ada-sunday-news-may-27-1973-p-1/
The Daily Oklahoman – Oklahoma City, OK – May 27, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/image/454369789/
The Daily Oklahoman – Oklahoma City, OK – May 28, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/image/454375686/
The Daily Oklahoman – Oklahoma City, OK – May 30, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/image/454379474/
The Oklahoman – May 23, 1993. https://www.newspapers.com/image/454379474/
The Lawton Constitution – Lawton, OK – May 28, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/image/36613508/
The Nevada State Journal – Reno, NV – May 27, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20342757/
The Town Talk – Alexandria, LA – May 27, 1973. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20342794/
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