Friends of Kent State Victims say They Were Not Radicals
From the New York Times, May 5, 1970
KENT, Ohio, May 5 – None of the four Kent State University students killed on Monday by National Guard rifle fire was a revolutionary or hard-core radical according to many who knew them.
One died far from home, his Long Island Railroad commuter ticket left behind in a wallet in his room. One died next to the boy she loved. One died on her way to speech therapy class. And one died just watching the disorder.
Two were boys and two were girls. All were white.
William K. Schroeder of Lorain, Ohio, was a handsome husky 19 year old who wore his light brown hair cut conventionally. He was an Eagle Scout at the age of 13. At Kent State he played an aggressive game of basketball and was second in his Reserve Officers Training Corps class.
“This kid was not a radical,” said Police Inspector Maurice Mumford of Lroain, a neighbor who had known young Schroeder about 15 years.
At Lorain High School, the youth played varsity basketball and was captain of the cross-country team. He graduated with an A-minus average.
He won a scholarship to the Colorado School of Mines in 1968. His parents, Mr. And Mrs. Louis A Schroeder, said he transferred to Kent State because he wanted to major in psychology and could not do so at Colorado.
College friends called him an “all-American type of boy,” a quiet youth who liked to play the trumpet. His parents remember him as an “extra special son” who never got into trouble. They said he had hoped for peace, but was not the type who would take part in a demonstration. He was said to have been watching the disorders when he was killed.
At yesterday’s funeral service for 20 year old Sandra Lee Scheuer of Youngstown Ohio, the rabbi remarked that her parents had named her Gittel, which means “goodness.”
“She was just a happy kid, always the one who made jokes,” according to Jan Reinstein, Miss Scheuer’s roommate.
Miss Scheuer’s friends look strangely at those who inquire about her politics. “Sehw as concerned about what happened, but like everybody else, she didn’t know what to do about it,” Miss Reinstein said.
A boy who knew her wrote that she was “incapable of inciting a riot, incapable of throwing a rock, incapable of calling a policeman a ‘pig’.”
She was a pretty girl with long dark hair. “The little sister of the fraternity,” said a boy from Kent state. “I guess you could say she was the comic for all the kids.”
Miss Scheuer was on her way to speech therapy class with a friend, Sharon Swanson, when they were caught up in the gunfire. They hid behind cars. “Sandy must have thought it was over and stood up,” Miss Swanson said, through her tears. “I saw her lying there, hit in the neck.”
If any of the victims looked like a radical, it was long-haired 20 year old Jeffrey Glenn Miller of Plainview, L. I. Many say the looks were deceiving.
The youth was described by acquaintances as quiet, intelligent, studious – and not the rebellious type.
He dated Ms. Scheuer for a while. And he played the drums “every day between 5 and 6,” said a student who lived near him. “He wasn’t spectacular but he was learning.”
But a friend, Michael Ohrenstein, said the Miller youth, who had transferred from Michigan State University, was “disillusioned about his country” and “floundering, looking for something.”
Another acquaintance recalled that “when something was happening he would be there.” Another said he was “concerned, but he wasn’t an activist.”
The books in his room at Kent State included “The Sun Also Rises,” “The Catcher in the Rye,” “Lost Horizon,” and “Inherit the Wind.” There was nothing by Marx or Mao, and no revolutionary posters. There was a note that said “Follow your dream. You know what I mean – Jefferson Airplane.”
And his Long Island Railroad Commuter ticket was in the wallet on his desk. On top of a notebook, the youth had printed, “Rocky for President in `72”
The biggest thing in the life of Allison Krause of Pittsburgh apparently was her boyfriend, Barry Levine of Valley Stream L.I. He dropped to the ground when the guardsmen opened fire and was unhurt. Miss Krause whose friends said she was on her way to class, did not get down. She was killed.
“She had just stopped to look around and see what was happening, “ an acquaintance said.
The most most frequent adjective friends used in describing the 19 year old art history major was “beautiful.” She had Dark curly hair and her face was described by a student as “Indian-like so proud.”
A friend, Karen Zabrucky, said that mss Krause’s parents had wanted her to marry a Jewish boy. (Barry is Jewish). When it was suggested to Miss Krause that religion was not important, she replied that it was important to her parents.
By all accounts, Miss Krause had no overriding interest in politics
or revolution. She frequently carried a pet kitten around the Kent
State campus. And last Sunday she placed a flower in a guardsman’s
rifle barrel and said, “Flowers are better than bullets.”
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