Belynda Mitchell holds onto her father-in-law, George Mitchell, as names of victims of the 1953 tornado are read aloud during a memorial service at the corner of Crawford and Washington streets Friday. Mitchell’s wife and two daughters were trapped in the Saenger Theatre for hours during the recovery effort after the tornado.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[12/6/03]A day marked in history as one of Vicksburg’s worst was noted with tears and hugs as family and community members paid tribute Friday to the day 50 years ago when 38 citizens died in a tornado.

“This is part of my life,” Lillian Mitchell said through tears. Mitchell is now 80 and was trapped with her two daughters in the Saenger Theatre, where five children died. She and her children were hosting a birthday party at the theater. “It doesn’t go away. It’s always there.

“But I’ll never forget this either,” she said of the two plaques dedicated at Crawford and Washington streets. About 70 people attended the service.

Sponsored by the Leadership Vicksburg class of the Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce, the plaques include a list of the 38 victims and a replica of the front page of The Sunday Post-Herald of Dec. 6, 1953. The newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for its efforts to publish that night.

“It was everything we expected it to be and more,” said Annette Kirklin, a member of the class.

“To have people here whoexperienced the tornado…” she said fighting back tears. “It was what we wanted it to be.”

Lillian Mitchell’s husband, George Mitchell, worked to help remove his family and others from the debris.

“It’s so sad,” he said. “Just to think of the people who were lost breaks my heart. We thank the Lord everyday we’re here.”

Others at the ceremony, which included a moment of silence as the victims’ names were read, were the family of Joyce Barfield. Barfield was 7 years old and killed in the theater.

Dick Palermo also attended the dedication. His 18-year-old brother, Jack, was killed in the family’s store, Palermo’s Men’s Shop at 1318 Washington Street.

Dick Palermo was in college in Texas when he heard the news of the devastation in Vicksburg on Paul Harvey radio news.

He arrived in Jackson at 6:30 a.m. the following day. People at the airport told him he wouldn’t be able to make it to the city, but an American Red Cross executive gave him a ride in a limousine.

“They dropped me off at Cherry Street,” he said. “It was a beautiful morning, and I thought how could Vicksburg be destroyed?”

Palermo went to Vicksburg Hospital, where his parents were, and a doctor didn’t recognize him.

“He thought I was my brother. He said, Jack, we’ve been looking for you,'” Palermo said.

His parents thought he was his brother as well. After visiting them, the 22-year-old headed downtown.

“A guardsman tried to stop me but I told him I had to find my brother,” Palermo said. “It took me 20 minutes to walk two blocks.”

Palermo pointed to Paper Plus, a shop that now stands where his family business stood until 50 years ago Friday, and said, “You could stand on the sidewalk and look down and see the roof. Three floors fell into the cellar.”

Jack Palermo was pulled from the debris three days later.

“If you could stand and see the devastation 50 years ago and now see how beautiful it is down here now,” Dick Palermo, now 72. “We’re certainly thankful from the bottom of our hearts for this remembrance.”