Springfield, Missouri, USA
1938 - Tower, Support for Yule Star, Crashes on Classroom; 8 Hurt

Springfield, Mo., June 10 (AP).-Eight students at Southwest State Teachers’ College were injured Friday when a forty-right foot steel tower crashed through a skylight into a room where a class in architecture was in session. Thirty others escaped injury.

In a hospital here are Miss Edith Oliver, 40, a Neosho schoolteacher, who suffered a deep cut across the back; Miss Verna Lee Lunsford, 34, of Bolivar, also a schoolteacher, who suffered head cuts; Miss Edwina Shields, 26, of Conway, whose right hand was badly cut, and Miss Betty Ferguson, 22, of Springfield, who was knocked unconscious and suffered slight cuts and bruises.

The tower crashed during a rainstorm, and Roy Ellis, president of the college, believed it was struck by lightning. The tower was erected stop the administration building two years ago. Its sole use was for displaying a lighted star at Christmas time.

Dallas Morning News
Dallas, Texas
June 11, 1938

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