Oklahoma tornado victims met in Big Sandy
A tornado hit the Oklahoma panhandle March 28, taking the lives of two Oklahomans who were former residents of Big Sandy, Texas. The couple had met at a college there in the 1960s.
In the mid-1960s Vance Woodbury was an employee of the farm on the Ambassador College campus two miles east of Big Sandy while Barbra Davisson was a student who enrolled as a freshman in the fall of 1966.
About 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, 2007, a tornado blew away the Woodburys’ house that had stood in a rural area near the small town of Elmwood, Okla., in Beaver County.
PHOTO: Barbra Woodbury
PHOTO: Vance Woodbury (left) and his father, Ledru Woodbury of Fruita, Colo.
Mrs. Woodbury was in the house and her husband was outside. The tornado touched down and crushed the residence and killed her instantly. The twister picked Mr. Woodbury up and carried him several yards away. He died on the way to a hospital.
Their son Curt has returned from his military deployment in Iraq for the funeral, which was scheduled for Monday, April 2. The Woodburys’ oldest son, Brad, lives with his wife, Vicky, in the Elmwood area.
The Woodburys were “wonderful people, good Christians and excellent friends,” said Joe Kirkpatrick of Portales, N.M. “I cannot remember when I didn’t know Vance as we were childhood friends.”
Mr. Woodbury operated heavy equipment for Beaver County. The Woodburys were reportedly the first Oklahomans to be killed by a tornado since April 2001.