Billy Gene Thompson (1924-2013) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Billy Gene Thompson

Born 2 Jun 1924 in Rusk, Texas, United States

Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]

[sibling(s) unknown]

[spouse(s) unknown]

[children unknown]

Died 7 Sep 2013 at age 89 in Henderson, Rusk, Texas, United States

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Profile last modified 7 Oct 2023 | Created 1 Mar 2020

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Space:New London, Texas, School Explosion

Biography

Billy survived the New London school explosion. He was in Miss Wright's English class. He had asked another student to change seats with him so he could flirt with the girl sitting in front of her, Billie Sue Hall. He survived the explosion, but learned 11 days later, that she did not. Though Bill had told people thru the years that the girl who switched seats with him saved his life, it wasn't until 40 years later he revealed her name, Ethel Dorsey. (see attached newspaper article from 1997)

He remembers hearing nothing, but his parents, six miles away, heard a crashing sound at that instant. They thought another oil field boiler had blown. “Everything went up and around and around,” Thompson said. He blacked out and woke up an hour later, buried in tangled steel and plaster. “I could move one hand and one arm, but everything else was mashed in. I felt hot blood on my face. I kept trying to wake up, pinching myself.”

It took hours for rescue workers to dig him out. Despite his injuries, he stumbled around the campus, trying to help others. “I was covered with blood and thick gray dust. I must have looked like a ghost. I remember seeing the rows and rows of bodies lying in the sun, and hearing the parents shrieking, ‘Have you seen my child? Have you seen my child?’ The searchers were pretty frantic.”

Ike Challis was in the same class and also survived. Ike was under the rubble couldn't move anything except for his right arm about two to three inches. But he repeatedly reached out to touch the face of a fellow student to reassure them they weren't alone. Years later when Challis was in high school, he and some friends were talking about the explosion, and it was only then that he found out that the face he had been touching for comfort was (Bill) Thompson's. The boys had never discussed what happened enough to know how close they were that day.

Bill Thompson: "I was in a ward-type room with several kids, and sometime in the night they moved me to a cot to make room for an unconscious boy who had jumped out of a window and suffered a broken neck. In the early part of the next morning he died."

"About ten days after the explosion, we were trying to assemble classes in the gym, but we had no gas in there and it was cold. On March 29 it started snowing, and when we got out, everything was solid white, a blanket of snow.

The teacher called roll for our class to see how many were there. Someone would answer, “He’s in the hospital” or “His folks moved back to Arkansas.” And sometimes it was that he had been killed. When they called the name of the little girl I had switched seats with, I realized she had been killed sitting in my seat. I didn’t know that till that day. I buried the guilt for many years before I came to deal with it. I took the blame for a lot of things."

"After 45 years I had some counseling with a professional who helped me deal with it."

"Around fifty years after the explosion, I called the sister of the girl I’d traded seats with and told her that I had to unburden myself of this guilt."

"I was in a ward-type room with several kids, and sometime in the night they moved me to a cot to make room for an unconscious boy who had jumped out of a window and suffered a broken neck. In the early part of the next morning he died."

"I would wake up nights, having nightmares and hearing the same thing that I heard that day - women screaming and crying for their babies."

"The superintendent, Mr. [W. C.] Shaw, was brought into court time and time again. He was acquitted. Still, a lot of people blamed him for switching to this raw gas. That man had a burden no one else had. He had a nervous breakdown. Some people wanted to tar and feather him. Eventually, he resigned and left town."

"I thought about little things, like when I made the varsity (football team) when I shouldn’t have. You see, my competition was all dead.”

Obituary

Billy Gene Thompson, 89, of New London, died Sept. 7, 2013, in a Henderson nursing home. He was born June 2, 1924, in Rusk County to Alvin A. Thompson and Bonnie Freeman.

He survived the New London school explosion, and served in the Navy during World War II. He was married to Margaret Thompson for 66 years, and retired from Kelly-Springfield Tire Company. He was a member of London Methodist Church.

Survivors include his sons, Kent and Linda Thompson, New London, and Gregg and Jyoti Thompson, Overton; six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by two sons, Rodney and Scott Thompson.

Service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013, at Burrows Overton Funeral Home with the Revs. Jim Hilton and Jerry Smith officiating. Burial at Lakewood Cemetery, Henderson.