The 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes in Indiana

by Janis Thornton

Author Janis Thornton reveals the stories of a day in Indiana like no other. Palm Sunday 1965 started as the nicest day of the year, the kind of weather that encouraged Hoosiers to get out in the sun, fire up the grill, hit the golf course, or roll down their car windows and take a leisurely drive. That evening, however, throughout northern and central Indiana, the sky turned an ominous black, and storms moved in, quickly manifesting as Indiana's worst tornado outbreak. Within three hours, twisters, some a half-mile wide, ripped through seventeen counties, devastating communities and leaving death and destruction in their wake. When the tornadoes were finished with Indiana, 137 people were dead, hundreds were injured, and thousands more were forever changed.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

176 pages, Paperback

Published May 2, 2022

About the author

Janis Thornton is an Indiana-based author of history, mystery, and true crime. Her most recent book, “No Place Like Murder: True Crime in the Midwest,” from Indiana University Press, is a collection of 20 sensational true crimes that shook Indiana from 1869 through 1950.

Coming next is “The 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes in Indiana,” published by History Press.

Her previous true crime work, “Too Good a Girl: Remembering Olene Emberton and the Mystery of Her Death,” tells the story of the 1965 Tipton, Indiana, murder of Janis' high school classmate.

Janis’ fiction works include the paranormal-romantic mystery, “Love, Lies & Azure Eyes”; and two cozy mysteries in the Elmwood Confidential series — “Dust Bunnies & Dead Bodies” and “Dead Air & Double Dares.” She also is the author of three local history books, “Images of America: Elwood,” “Images of America: Tipton County” and “Images of America: Frankfort”; and contributor to “Undeniably Indiana” and “Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul 2.”

She is a member of the national and Indianapolis chapter of Sisters in Crime, the Authors Guild, Indianapolis Writers Center, and the historical society of her hometown, Tipton Indiana. Her cozy mysteries were finalists in the East Texas Writers Guild’s First Chapter Book Award contests in 2015 and 2016. She was a 2009 Midwest Writers Workshop Fellow and was a finalist in the Daphne du Maurier contest the same year. Her newspaper feature stories have been recognized by Women in Communications (Lafayette, Indiana chapter), Smiles Unlimited, and the Hoosier State Press Association.

You may contact/follow/like her at www.janis-thornton.com, Twitter (@JanisThornton), and Facebook (facebook.com/janisthorntonauthor).

Reviews

[Keegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to read all the harrowing tales of this night. The book was very much "local history", as in, relaying many different vignettes rather than synthesizing them into a full narrative. That's fine considering the book wasn't written by an academic historian. It's good to have all these stories recorded somewhere. Overall, worth a read if you're from the area or if you're curious about kinds of stories you'd hear from an area with many tornadoes.

[Susan Ratliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was 15 years old, living in northern Indiana, when these tornadoes hit. Fortunately for me and my family, we lived just slightly north of those that hit the LaPaz area. Although I enjoyed the historical nature of the book, the accounts were repetitive. It is a good book to have in my library.

[Angela Stillson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good coverage of the tornadoes that hit on Palm Sunday 1965. I grew up hearing about it, but never understood the magnitude of it.

[Stephen Terrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who lived through the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes will never forget. It started as a beautiful warm spring day, with families heading to church for Palm Sunday services, then off to enjoy one of the first gorgeous days of spring -- to family gatherings, backyard barbeques or maybe to see the newly released movie Mary Poppins. But as evening fell, the skies turn black and green and deadly. A wave of violent tornadoes swept across northern and central Indiana. When it was done, 137 Hoosiers died -- friends, fellow church members, parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles -- and most sadly of all, children. To this day, it remains the most deadly storm outbreak in the state's history -- the most deadly day in Indiana history.

In Janet Thornton's book, the survivors of that day tell their stories of terror, tragedy, heroism, survival and just plain luck. Whether you're a Weather Channel fan, a storm chaser, or just enjoy reading true stories of human drama, Palm Sunday Tornadoes in Indiana is a MUST READ.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good recounting of the 1965 tornado disaster in Indiana mostly as told by those who lived it, along with pictures-and a quick read.
I do wish the map was at the very front (as I had to look up a map before I got to the part where I found the map in the book). Furthermore, saving the warning not to waste time opening windows (because it doesn’t actually help) until the end of the book perhaps would be better served at the beginning in case a reader chooses not to finish the book (because real people got hurt and died so potentially traumatic to read).

[Darel Krieger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but sad tale of how a band of tornadoes roared across north central Indiana on Palm Sunday 1965. This weather event devastated many families and left a tragedy that was not soon forgotten. Definitely recommend.

[Wendell Zetterberg jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great account of a tragic event. Very well researched and told.

[Jim Blessing · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this was not an interesting book to me.

[Joanne K. Malbone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never forget that day.

I was pregnant with our first baby, living in Aurora, IL with
my husband, serving as pastor of our first congregation. It was a beautiful day there, just as it was in Indiana. The weather worsened; we didn't get the brunt of the storm, but the sister of one of our parishioners was hit hard in Crystal Lake. Later, when we traveled from Aurora to Anderson, IN, we drove through many places where the tornado had erased towns and farms. This book paints the story of that day as perfectly as possible.