Hugs. Tears. Breaking voices. Balloons sent skyward. And, of course, even after all these years…broken hearts.
Thirty-four years after 114 innocent souls died in the collapse of the Hyatt skywalks — during a late-afternoon tea dance — a stylized, polished-steel heart was dedicated to those who died and were injured in the July 17, 1981, disaster, the greatest in Kansas City history.
As was abundantly clear this morning, on a hillside across the street from what was the Hyatt Regency Kansas City hotel, the memorial is just as much for the living — those who lost relatives and friends and those of us who simply will never forget.
The memorial was nine years in the making. The ramrod — the chairman of the Skywalk Memorial Foundation — was Brent Wright, whose mother and stepfather died that fateful day. Along with others, Wright pushed relentlessly for the memorial and helped raise more than $500,000 to see it created and erected and to establish an endowment fund to maintain it.
The sculpture, called “Sending Love,” was designed by Kansas City artist Rita Blitt, who was among more than 200 people attending the dedication. The stylized heart, appearing poised to lift off into the sky, stands atop a matte black circular base that bears the engraved names of the 114 victims. (Note: In a story posted this afternoon, The Star’s Matt Campbell says the sculpture depicts a couple embraced in dance…Oh, well, the beauty of art is what you see in it and how it affects you, right?)
The memorial is at the north end of Hospital Hill on ground maintained by the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department. A semi-circular stone and concrete bench offers visitors a place to sit, reflect and pay homage.
One of those who spoke most movingly at the dedication program was Frank Freeman, whose domestic partner Roger Grigsby died in the collapse. Freeman was seriously injured.
Voice cracking, Freeman said, in part:
“I’m overcome with joy and pride…This is a moment (when the skywalks collapsed) that wrenched loved ones from our arms but nor our hearts…The wounds remain. It is never gone.”
Of all the speakers, Freeman was the only one to allude to the cause of the disaster, mentioning the “careless, inexcusable design” of the skywalk support system.
…In a design change, engineers decided to use offsetting support rods instead of a single set to suspend the skywalks from the hotel ceiling. The change doubled the stress on the rods supporting the upper skywalk, on which people were standing and swaying to the band music…It was the first time most Kansas City area residents heard the term harmonic vibration.
The Hyatt name remained on the hotel until 2011, when it became a Sheraton property.
I have closely followed — and contributed to — the memorial effort, and this is a great day in Kansas City, commemorating the worst tragedy in our city’s history.
Here are some photos:
The memorial site offers an excellent view of the skyline.
Part of the crowd.
Rita Blitt, who designed the sculpture. Behind her, seated, are Mayor Sly James and former Mayor Richard Berkley, who was in office in 1981.
A family member of a victim had to pause as she read the names of some who died.
From left, Frank Freeman, Brent Wright (chairman of the memorial foundation) and Peggy Olson. Freeman lost his domestic partner; Wright his mother and stepfather; Olson her sister, who was 11 years old.
A fitting send-up.
Retired Kansas City Fire Chief Charley Fisher (right), who quickly went to the scene of the tragedy, hugged Brent Wright.
The names of everyone who died are engraved on the base.
Last dance, indeed…
The building that lives in infamy.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Very fine report, Jim, and stunning pictures. Your pictures express the heartache.
Laura
Thanks, Laura. It was very moving.
Wow! An outstanding memorial, well worth the wait.
You bet, Mike. As a key planner in our coverage of the disaster, you will appreciate this from Wikipedia:
Three days after the disaster, Wayne G. Lischka, an architectural engineer hired by The Kansas City Star newspaper, discovered a significant change of the original design of the walkways. Reportage of the event later earned the Star and its associated publication the Kansas City Times a Pulitzer Prize for local news reporting in 1982.
I remember that Lischka used to bring donuts into the newsroom every day to share with the investigative reporting team, of which Rick Alm was a key member.
Jim, this is great. The memorial will be a destination for us the next time we are in KC. I was working at Truman State at the time of the tragedy and went to work Saturday morning and picked up a copy of The Star and saw what had happened. Shocking.
Clarification, Tom: You would have read about it in The Kansa City Times…I was in the office doing rewrite, taking information from reporters on the scene. It was terribly chaotic — so chaotic that I was under the impression one skywalk had fallen, and that’s the way it came out in the story I wrote. A second story on Page 1 had it right, that two had gone down…I remember our city editor, Paul Haskins, was out of town on a fishing trip, and we were kind of lost without him. He undoubtedly would have caught the error. He came back the next day. They guy never, NEVER, went on fishing trips; he was totally focused on the news, working from 3 or 4 in the afternoon until 1 a.m. I never asked him how he felt about missing the first day of that story. He died several years ago.
The victims listed in your photo included the McLanes. Their son Steve was a close friend in the early sixties. I spent many nights at their home near 78th and Roe in PV. That family introduced me to their love of music, especially jazz. At their funeral a five piece jazz group performed. I’ll never forget the ending of the ceremony — a Dixieland version of The Saints Go Marching In.
Jim, thanks for this beautiful tribute to a horrific day. I was the Trinity Lutheran Hospital PR person in charge of communicating with the media about the injured and deceased, and I will never forget that night and the weeks and months that followed. We are a city that rallies for each other — in good times and bad.
I was living in Philadelphia when the news broke on tv. I was immediately worried as Sis and BIL took our cousin’s children almost every week. Not that week fortunately because that is where they always watched the action below.
Bob Walkenhorst’s lyrics are the only thing missing at the memorial IMHO
Take a trip with me to Kansas City Mo
To the Hyatt House, to the big dance floor
You can still see the ghosts
But you can’t see the sense
Why they let the monkey go
And blamed the monkey wrench
And we were rockin’ at the T-Dance
Rockin’ at the T-Dance
Two engineers lost their licenses, but, as usual, nobody was prosecuted.
Maybe not, but you know those two engineers have lived with what they did (if they have any soul), which may be a worse kind of prosecution.
Beautiful pictures, and what an appropriately stunning day for the service. I can see the dancing thing in the sculpture … a passionate tango, perhaps.
I came across this post on the NEHS Alumni FB page. The author, Ron Roberts was part of the band playing lots of the Tea Dances.
“I am perplexed, yet again, by misinformation in regard to the Hyatt Skywalks collapse. I was there on the bandstand, and I was also, at that time, the Vice President of the musicians union, and as a such dealt with the aftermath, media feeding frenzy.
“We were playing ‘Satin Doll’ and not ‘Lil Darlin.’ We were half way through Herman Bell’s tenor chorus.
“If you are interested there is an excellent eye witness account, (and unlike many of the patrons, I hadn’t been drinking all afternoon) in my book, ‘Close Enough for Jazz.’ ”
I worked at Shook, Hardy & Bacon and some of the folks there talked about seeing strange orbs/lights/ghosts when they worked late into the night.
Bob Walkenhorst’s words need to be somewhere at the memorial.
Take a trip with me to Kansas City mo
To the Hyatt House, to the big dance floor
You can still see the ghosts
But you can’t see the sense
Why they let the monkey go
And blamed the monkey wrench
And we were rockin’ at the T-Dance
Rockin’ at the T-Dance