Woman who survived, led victims’ families through Oklahoma City bombing has died
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A woman, nicknamed ‘Mother Goose,’ who led her company, community and employees’ families forward after after surviving the Oklahoma City bombing, has passed away.
Florence Rogers was the CEO of the Federal Employees Credit Union inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Downtown Oklahoma City when a terrorist bombed the building on April 19, 1995.
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18 of her employees died.
Rogers had a nickname among her employees.
“She was Mother Goose,” said Kari Watkins, President of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.
Her ‘flock’ were the dozens of employees who worked with her since she took over as CEO of the credit union in 1977.
“She was kind of a matriarch in many ways,” Watkins said. “She was a force of presence.”
“It was like family,” Rogers told News 4 in 2020. “That was one of our main goals. To be like family. One goal. One flight. One pattern. Flying in the same direction.”
Rogers had just begun a meeting with eight employees inside her office on the third floor of the Murrah Building at 9 a.m. on April 19, 1995.
Three minutes later, she was the only one alive.
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“There was only 18 inches of the floor behind me that didn’t break away” Rogers told News 4 in 2020. “So they all disappeared… When I was thrown on the floor, I could look up and see the whole building. Clear on the north side I could see blue sky. So I knew it was horrible.”
Lori Neace’s sister, Jill Randolph, was one of the eight people in that office with Florence.
“We just knew she was missing,” Neace said. “And so we flew to Oklahoma City.”
By the time Neace’s plane landed that night, Rogers had been pulled out of the rubble.
Without missing a beat, ‘Mother Goose’ had immediately begun searching for her flock.
“And I will never forget that she took the time to call me after having such a horrific day herself,” Neace said. “And she told me that my sister was sitting right across from her and they were sitting in that meeting and that Jill was holding a yellow legal pad, taking notes.”
The details of that phone call would prove invaluable for Neace as she faced the grim task of recovering and burying her sister.
“She was able to tell us what Jill was wearing, which was very important actually, for all the women when they looked for them that they knew what color clothing they were wearing,” Neace said.
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News 4 caught up with Rogers just a couple days after the bombing, amazingly back at work in a temporary office.
“I have nothing,” Rogers told News 4 in 1995. “We have nothing left.”
She retired a couple years later.
She’d later go on to help oversee the planning and opening of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.
She died at the age of 88 over the weekend.
“My eyes just filled with tears because that’s another generation, you know, another piece of connection that I have with Jill,” Neace said.
“You lost you lost her experience and her stories and her strength, her example,” Watkins said.
Now mother goose can fly back her flock.
“I know Florence lived a long life and I’m thankful for that,” Neace said. “And I’m just blessed to know that she did get out of that building.”
Rogers will be laid to rest at 1 p.m. this Friday.
It will be simulcast on Resthaven Cemetery’s website.
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