By Mike Pound
mpound@joplinglobe.com
FRANKLIN, Kan. — Ennis Krasovec doesn’t spend much time talking about the tornado that destroyed her home and left her hospitalized for almost three weeks.
The 87-year-old former resident of Franklin, Kan., who now lives in a tidy one-bedroom apartment in Arma, said she doesn’t like to dwell on the storm that changed her life. Besides the occasional chat with a neighbor who also lost her home on May 4, 2003, she prefers to look ahead.
“We’ll sometimes talk about it but not for very long,” Krasovec said.
She was in her home when the tornado struck just after 5 p.m. She doesn’t remember much about the storm itself but she does remember waking up outside. She was rushed to the hospital in Girard with a fractured wrist, broken collar bone and assorted cuts and bruises. From Girard, she was taken to Mount Carmel Medical Center in Pittsburg.
Krasovec lost just about everything — possessions, heirlooms and photographs were destroyed or blown away.
But she said the one thing the storm didn’t take — the thing it couldn’t take — was her memories of the town she lived in her entire life. And even though she now lives in Arma, Ennis said she will always consider herself a resident of Franklin.
It’s that sense of community that Craig Stokes, chairman of the Franklin Community Council, said was vital to town’s ability to bounce back from the tornado that killed longtime resident Josephine Maghe and destroyed dozens of homes, the post office and the community center.
Devastation was so severe and the loss of property so great that some people openly questioned the worth of trying to rebuild. There was even talk at one point of dissolving the unincorporated town.
But that talk didn’t get far. Longtime residents wouldn’t hear of it and within weeks cleanup operations were under way with visions of a new and improved Franklin on the minds of some residents.
Today, the community is thriving. A brand new Community Center and Heritage Museum anchors the town. New homes have gone up and others have been repaired. A new community park complete with a shelter, playground equipment and bocce ball court was constructed. A new storm siren also was built.
Coming soon will be a new fire department and, after years of struggle, a community sewer project also could finally become a reality.
“The people of Franklin are the reason the town is doing so well,” Stokes said. “They didn’t sit around waiting for someone to help them. They just went to work.”
