Dallas family reveals never-before-published pictures of 1953 Waco tornado
By Terri Jo Ryan - Tribune-Herald staff writer
In the days after the May 11, 1953, tornado that hit Waco and killed 114 people, the Alvin and Lucy Withrow family drove down from Dallas to check on their kin.
During their stay, they took more than three dozen pictures of the F5 storm’s devastation and its dazed survivors.
For 55 years, their images remained in family photo albums, unseen except by relatives, until now. The Withrow family recently shared their story and photographs with the Tribune-Herald.
The family came to visit Alvin’s uncle Joe DeVeny and his wife, Betty Jo — and their children, Gene and Leon — the weekend following the tornado.
Joe DeVeny (1900-1971) was the brother of Withrow’s mother, Effie DeVeny Withrow. He and his wife lived on Maple Street, but both worked downtown.
“We were all close and often came to Waco to visit,” said Cindi Withrow Johnson of Houston, daughter of Alvin and Lucy. “When the tornado hit, it was only natural for our entire family, including my grandparents, to load up in the car (a blue Chevy) and head to Waco to check things out.”
Johnson, who was 7 then, recalled the journey to Waco “because my dad made every trip a history lesson — he was a history teacher at that time — and he impressed on us the power of the wind to have wrapped the sheet metal around the trees by the bridge.”
Joe DeVeny was at work at a downtown furniture store when the storm hit, said Dallas resident Lucy Withrow, now 84.
“She recalls him telling how the storm blew in the whole front of the store and how he took cover in the back and escaped injury, but that the store was basically destroyed,” Johnson said.
“Mother says that everyone was in a complete daze and state of shock and that rubble was piled everywhere. We were permitted to walk around and take pictures as long as we stayed out of the way.”
tjryan@wacotrib.com
757-5746
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