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The skies have cleared, the winds have died down, and Dallas-area residents have been able to assess the damage done by the tornadoes that ripped through the area Sunday night. As of Tuesday, about 32,000 people were still without power and many intersections remained closed. Incredibly, no deaths resulting from the twisters have been reported, but the amount of damage is still being assessed.
Tornadoes are seen as a natural part of life in North Texas. But only a few Dallas residents — the longest-lived ones — will remember the day our city was hit by tornadoes far more devastating and deadlier than those spawned by Sunday’s storm. Even fewer may recall how those tornadoes were covered by The Dallas Morning News and its competing newspaper, The Dallas Times Herald.
On April 2, 1957, a funnel was reported to have touched down northeast of Duncanville, somewhere between U.S. Highway 67 and Ledbetter Road, at about 3:55 p.m. According to The News, police watched as the slow-moving twister split into two separate cones; one moved along Polk Street at Camp Wisdom Road and quickly disappeared. The other swept northeast into Oak Cliff, leaving a wake of destruction.
By the time the first funnel cloud was spotted, most of the rain clouds had been pushed out of the area, giving witnesses an unobscured view from nearly every angle. As a result, the 1957 Dallas tornado sequence became one of the most well-documented of its time. The front page of The Dallas Morning News the following day prominently featured a photo by staff photographer Bill Winfrey, who captured the massive twister from the roof of The News’ building at 508 Young St. in downtown Dallas. The photo ran alongside three stories on the storm, and editors still found room on the front page to cover an election that took place the same day.
Apparently unable to snap any shots of the tornado itself, Dallas Times Herald photographers took to the skies to capture aerial photographs of the aftermath. From a helicopter, staff photographer Ed Benedict snapped the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Willomet Avenue in Oak Cliff. The caption below the image points out that the damage was limited to one side of Willomet, prompting writers to describe the tornado as having a “one-sided bite.” Times Herald editors also found space on the front page for election stories.
Of all the photos that appeared in The News that day, perhaps the most remarkable is found on Page 7. An aerial photo on the upper left-hand side of the page shows the path of the tornado, which ripped through the West Dallas neighborhood, leveling homes and businesses and causing an estimated $1.5 million in damage, according to The News.
The competing papers differed on the number of people killed and injured, and the valuation of the damage. According to The News, nine people were killed and at least 170 were injured. The Times Herald had both numbers set slightly higher, with 10 killed and at least 195 injured. The Times Herald estimated the amount of damage at $4 million.
The News featured two photos of the funnel cloud. The second was captured by News photographer Joe Laird at the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Turner Avenue in the Kessler Park neighborhood. The twister appears as a sharp black point slicing through the sky in the background. Kessler Park United Methodist Church is barely visible to the left. The photo appeared next to a list of victims’ names and a piece detailing the Red Cross’ efforts in the storm’s aftermath. An advertisement for Neiman Marcus takes up the bottom half of the page.
The Times Herald also provided a list of victims. The paper covered Parkland Memorial Hospital extensively and featured the only photo taken inside the hospital. The Times Herald was also the only paper to report that the majority of the victims admitted were people of color. The page above shows the one photo of the twister that The Times Herald was able to obtain. Dick Perdue, who was not a Times Herald photographer, snapped the shot from the 31st floor of the Republic Bank Building downtown.
Want to see more coverage from The Dallas Times Herald? Email research editor Erin Sood at esood@dallasnews.com. Curious about how The Dallas Morning News covered the cleanup in the weeks after the 1957 tornado? Become a Plus subscriber and gain access to 134 years of Dallas history at archives.dallasnews.com.
