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1956 Pinkstaff tornado the subject of next Historical Society meeting

Tuesday, November 11, 2025 at 11:53 AM

By Steve Anderson

The 1956 "Pinkstaff Tornado" will be the subject of the next meeting of the Lawrence County Historical Society (LCHS) in November.

The meeting will be on Monday, November 24th at 7 p.m. at the Pleasant Ridge Christian Church. located north of Lawrenceville at the corner of Illinois Route 1 and Pinkstaff Lane.

The program will center on February 25th, 1956, when an F-2 tornado struck the Pinkstaff area north of Lawrenceville around 2:30 a.m. A church, school and numerous homes were destroyed. Power and telephone lines were torn down, and trees were uprooted and thrown across roads. Property damage estimates exceeded $1.5 million, but miraculously no one was killed. 

LCHS members Larry Curry and Donna Burton will present the program with photographs and oral histories from that time. The meeting is free and open to the public.

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