By Jessica Gorman
On New Year’s Eve 1947, around 4:15 in the afternoon, Cotton Valley was struck by a devasting tornado.
The tornado reportedly first touched down in the Vanceville area of Bossier Parish. It then moved northeast leaving a 75-mile-long path of destruction extending through Cotton Valley, Leton, Dykesville, and Haynesville. Cotton Valley was the hardest hit.
Approximately 200 people were injured, an estimated 500 left homeless, and at least fourteen were killed. The path of the storm was reported to have been a half-mile wide with a large portion of the town flattened. Around 100 homes and 15-20 businesses were destroyed. The business section was heavily damaged and one report stated there was “not a house left standing” in the part of town inhabited by mostly black residents.
Help poured in from the surrounding area including Shreveport Police, Minden National Guard, and the Red Cross. The Garrett clinic at Cotton Valley was overwhelmed with the injured and a call went out to Springhill for doctors. Despite being sick with the flu, Dr. J.M. Garrett treated patients until he was unable to continue. Nurse Valras Yeates’s husband was one of the first known deaths and yet she worked for hours to help treat the injured. Many were sent to Springhill and those needing hospitalization to Minden and Shreveport.
Trains were loaded with “tents, blankets, cots, ranges, stoves, food” and water and rushed to Cotton Valley. Assistance was provided by Barksdale, Louisiana Ordnance Plant, and Minden to provide power and especially light needed to search the wreckage. To add insult to the situation, “torrential rain fell for several hours after the twister hit” and temperatures plummeted in the aftermath of the storm, dropping to about 22 degrees.
Among the dead at Cotton Valley were Hugh Clayton, Jewell and Anthony Collins, Charles H. Cox, James H. Formby, Doris June Perkins, Susie A Robinson, George A. Shaw, Linda Gale Vowell, Oder Vowell, and Edwin Yeates. At least two more deaths occurred in the following days. Lessie Allen died that Friday and nine-year-old Johnny Livingston died Saturday.
The first funerals were held Friday, January 2nd. James Howard Formby, ten-year-old son of Mr. & Mrs. Cecil Formby was buried in the Cotton Valley Cemetery along with Mrs. Oder Vowell, age 34. Her husband and both children had been hospitalized. Her husband and son suffered fractured skulls. Mrs. Jewell Collins and her eight-month-old son, Anthony Bruce Collins, were buried in Macedonia, Arkansas. Mrs. Collins had been missing in the immediate aftermath of the storm and was found 100 yards from her home and the body of her baby about another 100 yards away.
On Saturday, January 3rd, five more victims were laid to rest. They included 20-year-old Charles Cox buried at Cotton Valley along with three-month-old Linda Gail Vowell, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Ben Vowell. Mrs. Vowell was still hospitalized at the time of her daughter’s funeral. At Dykesville, George Shaw and four-year-old Doris Perkins, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Drayton Perkins who were both still hospitalized at the Minden Sanitarium, were buried. Edward Clifton Yeates, Sr. was buried in Minden.
The funeral of Mrs. Susie Robinson was conducted Sunday, January 4th.
Very little has been done to preserve the stories of those who experienced this terrible storm. We have photographs, news footage, and newspaper articles. One of those articles shares the story of Mr. Hugh Clayton’s death as told by his wife. She tells of how multiple family members were in the home at the time of the storm. As they were trying to protect the children, Mr. Clayton “let out a single cry” and Mrs. Clayton “pulled a 3-foot-long piece of timber” from her husband’s side. In spite of the storm, Mrs. Clayton “ran screaming to a neighbor’s house” in search of help. She was later treated for an injury to her head.
The New Year’s Eve tornado of 1947 was a major event in the history of Cotton Valley. If you have stories to add to the museum’s archive (and future Cotton Valley exhibit), I encourage you to please put it in written form and email it to dorcheatmuseum@yahoo.com.
(Jessica Gorman is Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, Webster Parish Historian, and an avid genealogist.)