HOPEWELL AMERICAN REFORMED
PRESBYTERIAN (ARP) CHURCH & CEMETERY-MAURY COUNTY TENNESSEE
BENDERMAN, Martha A., 8 Feb 1876 - 14 Mar 1933. (Martha Agnes Emerson Benderman; wife of Thomas L. Benderman; She was killed in a Tornado at their residence in East Nashville.)
Information by Judy Forgos, Photo by Wayne Austin 10 Feb 2005
Thomas Luther Benderman, Sr., 81, a native of Maury County, died at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville at 5 a. m. Sunday following a two weeks illness. Many years ago, Mr. Benderman was engaged in the freight business at Mt. Pleasant. He moved to Nashville in 1926 and was a retired road contractor. He was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. His wife, Mrs. Martha Agnes Emerson Benderman, also a native of Maury County, was killed during a cyclone at Nashville in 1933. Mr. Benderman received injuries in the storm from which he never fully recovered. Funeral services were to be held at a Nashville funeral home today by Dr. Charles R. Matlock. Burial will be in the Hopewell Cemetery in Maury County with the Rev. Burns P. Drake, pastor of the South Main Street Cumberland Presbyterian Church, officiating. Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Gladys Rickerson and Mrs. O. C. Inman, Jr., both of Nashville; and three sons, the Rev. Clarence Benderman of Nashville, with whom he made his home, Eugene Benderman of Albuquerque, N. M., and Thomas L. Benderman, Jr., of San Francisco, Calif. Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home in charge of local arrangements.
Columbia Daily Herald, Monday, Dec. 24, 1956, page 1. submitted by Judy B. Forgos 8/14/2009
EAST NASHVILLE HIT; INJURED POUR INTO HOSPITALS OF CITY
Terrific Winds Sweep State; Son Buried in Debris Tells Father of Dead Mother By His Side.
Three people are known to be dead while more than 50 are injured here, all caught in the wake of a wind of tornado proportions which struck at 7:30 o'clock last night, throwing the entire city into darkness as it spent the most of its wrath on East Nashville. The known dead two hours after the storm struck are Mrs. T. L. Benderman, 50, 115 McFerrin avenue, B. B. Lanier, 1617 Franklin avenue, and a small girl, Margaret Johnson, Myrtle avenue. Working by candle light, 20 nurses and as many doctors at General hospital were working over broken legs, arms and backs. The halls and all available space was filled with the injured, brought there in private cars and ambulances which worked their way through the storm-torn East Nashville streets. As the entire police and fire departments battled against the darkness which lasted long after the storm, in an effort to extricate the injured from twisted and burning buildings, stories of heroism and suffering began to come from stricken area. When the home of T. L. Benderman was battered down by the sudden wind, only Mrs. Benderman and Clark, her 17-year-old son, were trapped in the wreckage. Mr. Benderman, standing nearby, heard his son call, faintly from beneath the mass that was once his seven-room frame home. He answered, "Mama is dead," the boy, trapped there beside the form of his mother, called back to him. Another son, Clyde Benderman, his wife, Bonnie, and their five children, were in another part of the house furthest from where the wind first struck. All of them escaped injury. Mrs. Quinn Patterson, a nurse living in the home was injured and taken to General hospital. The extent of her injuries were not reported some time after the tragedy. She had been attending Mr. and Mrs. T. L. Benderman, who were in failing health.
The Nashville Tennessean, Wednesday morning, March 15, 1933 (this is the beginning portion of the article) Note: Mrs. Benderman's son was Clarence, not Clark as stated in the above article. submitted by Judy B. Forgos 8/14/2009
