NEW LONDON (KYTX) - Sunday marked the 75th anniversary of the worst school tragedy in American history - the New London School explosion.
In 1937, 293 students, teachers, and visitors were killed when a gas explosion leveled the New London school.
At a remembrance ceremony Sunday at the school, the community looked back on tragedy, and celebrated recovery.
75 years later, tears still run down the faces of so many as they remember a tragic day that changed them forever.
In front of hundreds of New London residents, a man who lost his father speaks. "March 18, 1937 sometime around 3:17 p.m. the London school exploded."
"I was standing in front of that school right there," said explosion survivor Don Gray Maxwell.
Anna Colley Jenkins also survived the explosion. "I was on the school bus to go home," she said.
Marion Rives' and his family helped look for survivors the day after the explosion.
"We came over here and all you could see was debris," he said. "There was one wall, out of the two story building, one wall was still standing."
It would be 40 years until the New London community would begin to open up about the tragedy.
"For years, nobody said anything about it," Rives said.
The silence was finally broken in 1977 at the first class reunion. It's when many survivors told their stories, for the very first time.
Jenkins was 9 years old when the school exploded.
"It was terrifying," she says. "I lost a cousin, a girl named Annie Lois Watkins, and her brother Eugene Watkins sustained terrible head injuries that disabled him the rest of his life."
Marion rives was only six years old at the time.
"I had three first cousins going to school there," he said. "One was killed, one had her back broke and legs broke. The youngest one had dropped her pencil and reached down to pick it up and when she was bent down, the explosion went off. When she raised up, there was a big hole in the wall and she ran outside, and she was not hurt. She's still alive today."
Maxwell was 12 years old when he watched the explosion that killed his older sister, who was inside the building.
He says, "The whole community was in sorrow, looking for the children they couldn't find. They didn't know if they were dead or not dead."
They will never forget what happened that day. However, they say they're relieved the people of New London have finally dealt with their pain, and can come together 75 years later -somewhat healed.
"It makes me feel good to see that people do remember these things," Jenkins said.
Rives agrees and said, "You just have to roll with the punches and go on."
Today is also the 75th anniversary for Trinity Mother Frances. The hospital opened a day earlier than planned in 1937 to treat the victims of the New London school explosion.
