Marianne B. O'Brien, Oral History

Recorded: May 1, 1990
Transcribed by Lisa Whalen and Kathleen S. Medicus

My name is Marianne Benkowski O'Brien, I live in Mentor, Ohio, and I'm thirty five. I attended Davey Junior High School twenty years ago, and was in ninth grade when the -- occurrences happened at Kent State. And came back today for the first time in twenty years just to take a look around and look at the memorial. Thank you.

My sister was in, I think, the fourth or fifth grade at that time. And when they came from Walls Elementary School through the campus and back over to Franklin Hills, they told the - all the little kids to duck their heads, because there had been shootings and all. They didn't do that with us in the Junior High. And also, I remember because we lived so close to the Campus that the - the helicopters going around, and the lights showing in our windows and all that. It was really - it was something that I'll never forget. And it was kind of nice to come back and, you know, maybe be a little nostalgic, not that it was a pleasant thing, but it was kind of a nostalgic thing. And I've read James Mitchener's book and whatever accounts that have been written on it pretty much, and so I came back to see what's going on.