Recounting a brush with death in the skywalk disaster

Kay and Bill Kelly of Lawrence were attending their second Tea Dance at the Hyatt on July 17, 1981, having had a wonderful time listening to the big band music the previous week.

After surviving the skywalks collapse, Kay Kelly said she would never be able to walk into that lobby again. Bill Kelly, a law professor at the University of Kansas, had been an infantry captain in combat in Europe in World War II. He would later say the experience at the Hyatt affected him more because the victims were innocent bystanders.

Kevin Kelly’s parents, both now deceased, each typed an account of their experience on the Sunday after the Friday disaster. The accounts were thought to have been lost in a fire until a distant relative came across some Kelly family material in large envelopes. She used Google to locate Kevin Kelly and a few weeks ago he rediscovered his parents’ writings. They have never been published before.

Before the tragedy, Bill had given Kay two dimes to use a pay phone to call their boys at home. That would have taken her under the skywalks. But she paused to watch the dance contest.

Out of the corner of my right eye I saw a fast blur of movement from top to bottom. I felt a blast of air push against my right side. It threw my husband, Bill, and me to the floor onto our hands and knees. A cloud of tan cement dust filled the air and the dust and shattered glass from the sides of the walkways rained down on us.

Kay yanked tablecloths to give to people to stop the blood.

...ran to the fallen walkways but I could only see legs & arms and the walkways were level with the floor — no space at all where bodies could be.

Bill, a big band fan, was certain the band was playing Count Basie’s “Lil Darling” and not Duke Ellington’s “Satin Doll,” as the media was reporting.

I realized the music had stopped. There was momentarily silence, except for some creaking noises. Then there was a babble of voices and people were running out of the lobby to the rear of the hotel area. There was no screaming or panic. I heard a hotel employee say, “Everything is all right. Go out the back.”

Bill and Kay became separated. Bill and several other men tried to help people pinned under concrete.

Most appeared to be dead, their bodies crumpled in grotesque positions pressed between tons of concrete and the lobby floor. We had to kneel on the floor and bend over to see them at all. One young, bearded man was lying on his back with his body free, but his right leg was crushed under the walkway. He was conscious and I talked to him, assuring him help would soon be there. He did not answer. There was nothing I could do but give him some assurance of help. Then I looked through the plexiglass railing on the lower walk — some of it was still in place. I could see a woman who apparently had been on the lower skywalk and had been trapped on it when the other one had fallen on it. She was in a crouching position. We looked at each other through the fog of dust. I called to her help was on the way. She just looked at me uncomprehendingly.

Kay noted that a pipe had burst and the rising water was ankle deep, cold and bloody.

There wasn’t ever any panic and people were just crying and helping and holding each other. I saw one lady and helped two people hold her back. She said “Just let me go over to the fallen walkway to see if I can find my husband. I know exactly where he is.” We couldn’t let her go as we knew if he was under the walkway he was dead.

A woman told Kay she could hardly breathe, her back was in great pain and she wanted a priest. Another woman gave her two dimes and asked her to call her children. Kay went looking for a pay phone.

When I got to Crown Center I couldn’t understand how all the people there seemed so quiet and normal. They were sitting down and clean and talking and laughing. I had blood all over my legs. The knees were out of my hose...my sheer dressy beige blouse with blue embroidery was splattered with blood and I had a towel wrapped around my hand. My dressy floral blue and beige skirt was also splattered with blood. No one seemed to notice me at all or cared how I looked!

Kay found a phone and called the woman’s children. No answer.

Bill and Kay found each other after being separated for an hour and a half. They decided to go home, stopping in Mission so Kay could try to call the woman’s children again. This time a neighbor answered and said she would alert the children their parents were OK.

We went to bed and clung to each other. I didn’t want to turn out the light.

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Recounting a brush with death in the skywalk disaster."