Remembering those who died in the 2007 tornado that devastated Greensburg, Kansas
Editor’s note: This story was first published April 28, 2017 on Kansas.com and in the Wichita Eagle newspaper on April 30, 2017.
Claude Hopkins, 79
Claude “Claudy” Hopkins always seemed to have a smile on his face, family members say, and he loved adventure.
The Hopkins roots ran deep in Greensburg: Claude’s grandfather, Cash, was one of the town’s founding fathers. Hopkins loved to hunt and fish. A long-time farmer, he later became a custodian in Greensburg.
He was found about 100 yards from the home he had lived in for 45 years. He may have been trying to get to his car to drive away from the tornado when it hit town, his son said.
Larry Hoskins, 51
A native of South Dakota, Larry Hoskins moved to Greensburg in 1975 and worked for his brother, Charles, at Greensburg Farm Equipment.
He later owned and operated a bar called Larry’s Place.
At the time of the tornado, he was a tanker fuel carrier for Volz Oil Company, owned and operated by Norm and Bev Volz.
He was single and “free as a breeze,” as his sister put it, at the time of his death. He is buried in his native South Dakota.
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David Lyon, 48
David Lyon loved science and was a devoted reader of Popular Science.
His aunt, Carolyn Lane, said he had “a searching, inquisitive mind.”
He died in the mobile home he lived in next to the railroad tracks, one of many mobile homes destroyed by the tornado.
Lyon was proud that his mother, Marilyn, served in the Air Force during the Berlin blockade. He lies buried next to her in Bucklin.
Colleen Panzer, 77
Born and raised in Kanopolis, Colleen Panzer worked as a bookkeeper. She was a volunteer at the senior center in Greensburg and a former member of 4-H and the Pratt Saddle Club.
But more than anything, friends and family said, Panzer was a generous person with a big heart. She was like a second mother to her daughter’s friends.
“She would do anything for anybody and expect nothing in return,” Garrett Panzer said in an e-mail describing his grandmother.
“She was the most generous person you will ever meet.”
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Ron Rediger, 57
Ron Rediger had lived in Greensburg for only two years, but to relatives it seemed like he had found a home.
He “was so grateful to be in Greensburg,” said a relative, Nancy Rediger, in a Facebook message.
Just days before the tornado hit, he started a job as a personal care attendant for Pathways in Pratt.
It was, Nancy Rediger said, “a job that he loved, and everything was looking up for him.”
He was found under the rubble of his house, which did not have a basement. His first paycheck for his new job was in his mail when the tornado hit, Nancy Rediger said.
Evelyn Kelly, 75
Evelyn Kelly called Kiowa County home her entire life, raising a family outside of Greensburg and later moving into town.
“She liked to putter around in the garden,” her son, Randy, said. “She liked to grow flowers.”
She also liked to cook for others: supper clubs, restaurants, hotels and a rest home in Haviland.
She kept to herself in her later years, moving to an apartment complex in Greensburg. She died in the rubble of that complex after the tornado struck.
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Sarah Tackett, 72
Born and raised in Wellington, Sarah Tackett had a lifelong love of horses.
“One thing I’ll always remember about her is that when she was about 10 years old, she would sneak out of the house and go clear across town,” said her sister, Julia Cooper of Van Buren, Ark., in 2007.
“She would go out in a field to where these stallions were, and they would let her ride them bareback. She loved horses from the minute she could walk.”
She owned and operated the Whirlwind Ranch in De Soto for many years. She was also a horse breeder.
At one time she had 22 brood mares and one or two stallions, her sister said.
Beverly Volz, 52
Beverly Volz was a quiet person who loved to knit, weave and create crafts.
“She loved cats,” said Matt McColm, her brother. “She and her husband were always rescuing cats.”
They married in 1973 and moved to Greensburg, where she worked for the oil company that belonged to her father-in-law and then her husband.
She was the office manager, keeping the books, doing the paperwork and handling all the computer work. Her husband said she was the one who ran the company.
She loved to garden and enjoyed weekend trips with her husband to Wichita and Kansas City.
Max McColm, 77
Max McColm was an accounting clerk for Amoco and adored Hope, his wife of nearly 50 years.
“He loved my mother dearly,” Matt McColm said.
The family lived in Ulysses and then moved to Liberal when Max McColm was transferred. He would take his son and daughter fishing, and summer trips to Colorado were a family tradition.
“He was a good father,” Matt McColm said.
Max McColm was staying with his daughter after surgery on his shoulder when the tornado struck. He suffered a head injury and was airlifted to Wichita.
He partially regained consciousness, his son said, but died in late September.
Richard Fry, 62
Fry, who lived in New Mexico, was described by a former co-worker after the tornado as “a very, very friendly loner.”
A business equipment repairman in Albuquerque for many years, Fry had retired less than a year before the tornado and moved to New Mexico. He lived in an 18-foot trailer next to the Gila National Forest.
He loved to jump in his pickup for cross-country trips. Friends and co-workers think he was on his way to see relatives in Chicago and just happened to stop in Greensburg for the night.
He wouldn’t use a motel, the former co-worker said. He would just sleep in his pickup, which had a camper shell.
Harold Schmidt, 77
A lifelong resident of Greensburg, Schmidt had retired from farming in the early 1990s.
As the tornado approached, Harold and his wife, Sarah, took shelter in the basement of their home. But the tornado swept away their house and threw a pickup into the basement.
It landed on Schmidt, pinning him. Twelve people answered Sarah’s cries for help and lifted the pickup off of Harold.
He was taken to Pratt Regional Medical Center, where he he underwent five surgeries. But he was unable to overcome his injuries and died 10 days after the tornado struck.
