‘It really is with you your entire life’: Ruskin Heights tornado memorial rebuilt

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - May 20 is the anniversary of Kansas City’s deadliest tornado: the Ruskin Heights tornado of 1957.

The F5 tornado made a 71-mile path of destruction from Williamsburg, Kan, to Knobtown, Mo. At times, it was as massive as half a mile wide.

Author and survivor Carolyn Glenn Brewer was just 7 years old at the time, but to this day, she has very vivid memories.

“The screen blew off the window and fell across the bed,” said Glenn Brewer. “I waking up to this horrible sound and smell, and all of my toys flying around the room.”

Luckily, Glenn Brewer emerged from the wreckage with only a small cut on her forehead.

Decades later, a storm in the 90′s awakened her interest in what she went through. She began talking to old neighbors and recording their stories. From the stories, she wrote two books on the tragedy.

“I think we all go through the same trauma,” said Brewer.

Glen Brewer felt that her parents’ generation didn’t talk about the tornado much.

“Some people had convinced themselves that it hadn’t happened,” said Brewer.

Rebuilding

People from all over came to help rebuild after the tragedy, building a memorial in honor of the lives lost. But in September 2024, a teenager drove into it.

“He said he hit the gas instead of the break, and it destroyed the memorial,” said Beth Boerger with the Ruskin Heights Home Association.

Boerger ran the numbers, and it would cost anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000, money they didn’t have.

“So, then we were in a pickle, and we were trying to decide what we were going to do to get this fixed because it’s very important to the community,” Boerger said.

A few months later, she got a call from Brad Smith, the owner of KC Stone.

“He wanted to tell me that they wanted to rebuild the memorial for free, I might cry,” Boerger said. “For me, it was very emotional; I just couldn’t believe somebody would do that for our community. It’s been a while since someone has stepped up to do something for this community.”

Smith lives in Springhill, Kan., which was on the path of the tornado. So, he told KCTV5 that he knew he wanted to help.

“It kind of touched me a little bit,” Smith said. “We care about the community, KC Stone does, all of our employees, and we’re proud to do this. It’s a great thing for the community to give back.”

Smith and his crew got to work. They tore down the destroyed memorial and started working on the new one.

“Relentless, we are relentlessly pursuing a strong, healthy community and I think by rebuilding this monument, it will show that,” Boerger said.

Survivors like Mike Smith, who was five when the tornado hit, are grateful that the memorial is getting rebuilt.

“There was a question whether it was going to be rebuilt, and I said that can’t happen,” Smith said. “So, I thought that was magnificent. That’s the sort of civic, small business stepping up to do the right thing.”

Smith recalls the day that he said changed his life forever.

“We were watching ‘I Love Lucy’ on Channel 5,” Smith said. “Dad was outside with the neighbor watching the sky, and then Dad came in and said, here it comes!”

Smith said everything was destroyed, images in his head that he will never forget.

“The brand-new Ruskin Heights High School that everyone was so proud of was completely gone,” Smith said. “There were homes where only the slab and the commode were still there, and there were pipes sticking out of the floor spouting water.”

Smith went on to be a successful meteorologist, devoting his life to studying tornados and continues to be an advocate for an early warning system.

“Had it not been for the warnings, we would have triple digit fatalities,” Smith said. “So good came from that tornado, and that’s what I think about on this day.”

Honoring Those Lost

Carletha Burns is a member of the Ruskin Heights community who has been there through every step of the memorial rebuilding process. Burns has an important message for community to help honor the victims and survivors.

“I would like for them to come out and visit the site,” said Burns.

She also invites people to go to the Ruskin Heights tornado survivors Facebook page.

The new memorial will have a rededication ceremony in the coming months.

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