Pushing his way through the tight circle of children on the playground at John J. Pershing elementary school, Duane Price recalled the feeling when he saw his sister Charlotte.
“I felt sick to my stomach. I dropped down to my knees and whispered into her ear, ‘C’mon Charlotte, everybody’s looking–you got to get up.’”
“I put my hand under her head to see if I could help her a little, and that’s when I knew something was terribly wrong. I remember leaning in closer–so close I could feel her hair ribbons on my cheek–I just kept whispering, ‘please get up…please get up.’”
“By then the teachers had run out of the building and things just started to move in slow motion.”
“Charlotte was my only sister. To this day, I still feel responsible for what happened. There were only 40 kids in the whole school–it wouldn’t have been that hard to keep a more watchful eye on her. The truth of the matter is I got caught up in a stupid game of football with the other boys. I was her older brother and I shoulda’ done better.”
Charlotte Price died from severe head trauma in the autumn of 1964 when she fell from a swing. She was in the second grade.
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