The story below is from our November/December 2018 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Crowds thronged downtown to view what was billed as the largest Christmas parade in Roanoke’s history. Twenty minutes before the parade commenced, tragedy struck.
George Davis, courtesy of the Roanoke Public Library’s Virginia Room
The Tragedy Site: This corner at Campbell Avenue and First (Henry) Street in front of the State and City Building was the site of the 1946 parade tragedy. Image is from the 1920s.
It was promoted to be one of the largest Christmas Parades in Roanoke’s history. The 1946 event ran high with expectations, being the first year after the close of World War II. Department store owner N.W. Pugh chaired the parade committee, composed of leading members of the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce and the Roanoke Merchants Association.
The main attraction was the use of large balloon figures–lizards, dragons and animals–brought in by a company that specialized in mammoth-sized parade inflatables. Some 140 Boy Scouts shouldered the balloons for the 45-minute walk. The most notable was the 45-foot green-eyed dragon carried by 34 Scouts. There was also Clarabelle the Cow, Dino the Dinosaur and, of course, Santa.
A reviewing stand was erected in front of the municipal building on Campbell Avenue, where mayors from Roanoke, Salem, Vinton and seven other surrounding towns were positioned. Braving overcast skies on that Tuesday afternoon, December 3rd, were an estimated 50,000 spectators lined along the 27-block route that snaked through downtown. They saw eight high school marching bands, veterans from the two great wars and a menagerie of floats, clowns and decorated vehicles. WSLS broadcast the event live over radio, and people were seen crowded around the upper floor windows of offices and stores for better viewing.
Among those in the crowd was Jeanette Sherrard Robertson of Salem. The widowed mother of eight had brought along her daughter, Martha Ann. The parade was perfectly timed for the Robertson family as it was the mother’s 55th birthday. They stood on the southwest corner of Campbell Avenue and Henry Street.
The sidewalk along Campbell Avenue in front of the State and City Building where Jeanette and Martha Ann stood was already packed with children excited to see the giant balloons. The official start time for the parade was in 20 minutes, and the Robertsons had positioned themselves early along the route for a good view.
Coming along Henry Street was a streetcar operated by veteran motorman V.H. McCarty of Vinton. As he moved down Henry Street toward Campbell, a city bus pulled alongside the curb on Campbell, but the crowd prevented the bus from clearing the intersection. The driver, A.L. Roberts, idled the bus as he waited for the street light to change. McCarty gently applied the streetcar’s air brakes, just as he had done a block earlier. They failed. McCarty then pulled hard on the hand brakes, but it was too late. The streetcar slammed into the left rear of the bus, shoving it into the crowd.
As pedestrians ran from the crushing sound of metal, Jeanette Robertson had nowhere to go. She was crushed beneath the bus. Martha Ann was among 18 others lying injured on the pavement. Police ran to the scene and did their best to manage a crowd that immediately swarmed the scene, delaying the arrival of emergency personnel. Jeanette was lifted into an ambulance but died before it could reach Lewis-Gale Hospital, a short distance away. At the hospital was a student nurse, Betty, Jeanette’s daughter. City coroner, Dr. Charles Irvin, would later report that Jeanette had died from a crushed chest and shock.
Martha Ann and 17 others were taken to Lewis-Gale. The hospitalized were Mrs. Frank Muse, 41; Lucille Roper and her two children, Sandra, 4, and Harold, 2; Ramona Hill, 17; and Mrs. Luther Pendleton, 42. The others that were injured were released from the hospital that day. All of the injured were standing on the walk, and none were on the bus or streetcar.
The following day, five of the six hospitalized remained at Lewis-Gale, and doctors reported that none had broken bones or were critically injured. As for the family and friends of Jeanette Robertson, they gathered for her four o’clock funeral at South Salem Christian Church.
Over the next several days, those in the hospital were sent home. McCarty was charged with manslaughter and reckless driving, and Roberts with reckless driving as investigations were ongoing as to the cause of the accident. Many were of the opinion that neither could be faulted for what was a mechanical failure with the streetcar. The Roanoke Times editorial board asserted that while an investigation was necessary and to be considered routine, both the management of the street railway system and McCarty himself were conscientious about safety and had clean safety records.
On December 20th, Judge Richard Pence of Roanoke’s police court dismissed charges against both drivers based upon what he determined was “a tragic mechanical failure for which no individual can be held responsible.”
The death of Mrs. Robertson was the last death or injury caused directly or indirectly by a streetcar in Roanoke. The Roanoke Railway and Electric Company ended streetcar service in Roanoke in 1948 mainly due to public transportation being provided by buses. In the almost 60-year history of street railways operating in the Roanoke Valley, 18 persons were killed due to accidents involving streetcars.
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