Marsha Keith, Oral History

Recorded: May 3, 2000
Interviewed by Henry Halem

Note: This transcript includes geo-references to locations that are discussed in the oral history. Geographical names linked in the transcript will open in a new window or tab that takes you to that location information and map in the Mapping May 4 project. To request a transcript without geo-reference links included, please contact Kent State University Special Collections & Archives.

[Interviewer]: This is Henry Halem. I have with me to give an oral history, Marsha Keith. Marsha, could you tell us in your own words your name and what you were doing on May 4th or any reminisce you might have concerning May 4th.

[Marsha Keith]: Okay. My name is Marsha Keith and on May 4th, 1970 I was thirteen years old. And I was in seventh grade at the University School. I was in a science class, a general science class, on the second floor of what is now the Michael Schwartz Center. Our windows were facing north, and for days before we knew there was a lot going on in town; tanks - what we perceived to be tanks - a helicopter for Rhodes had landed on our playground. For us, my classmates and myself, it was a time that was both exciting and frightening because, in my family, my father was director of the School of Technology at the time. I believe he was Assistant Dean of the College of Fine and Professional Arts, I'm not certain about that. And he was very nervous, very frightened, so there was a lot of panic at home going on - but we were kids; it was kind of thrilling. We had older siblings, many of us, that were up on campus involved in what was going on and we kind of were wanna-be's. And in my case, that was the case; I was torn between being a child and being an adult - being afraid and picking up on my parents' fears, and wanting to be up there with the big kids.

On that day, at that moment, at that time, we had Guardsmen come into our classroom, rather forcefully in their kind of movements; I don't remember if they had guns or anything like that. They made us get down on the floor, they drew our curtains - those big, heavy curtains - and made us crawl out of the room on our hands and knees into the hallway and said that there were possible snipers on the rooftop and we - it was chaos. And then they ushered us all down into the gymnasium and said we were not allowed to leave until they got buses from the local schools to take us all home. And of course, you know, you get 400 kids in a gymnasium, and it's pretty chaotic. I couldn't find my sister who at that time was seventeen, and I - she was taking classes up on campus as a senior and doing one of these programs - and so I was afraid that possibly she had been up there. I don't - at that time we didn't know about shootings, but this implied to us that something definitely had gone on that was not good. It took a long time to get home, and I lived maybe three blocks away, because they had to bring buses from the public schools. And I remember vividly, there were two friends of mine - Cindy Broderick and Shannon Buckley - who lived right on Mae Street, right behind the school, and they wouldn't even let them walk home unescorted. And so this was the atmosphere.

My memories after that are limited. My father, being director of the School of Technology, brought the entire technology library home and it was housed in our basement. And I remember him directing coursework with his students and coordinating with his faculty members how classes were going to continue over the summer. Later on, he told me that he was quite nervous and had - we have land down in southern Ohio near Marietta - and he had made provisions to take back roads out of town to get down there. This was total panic. He had stored water in the garage in case the rumors that were flying around about poisoning the water and such. So he was the old farm boy who had been in World War II and was gonna do whatever it took to take care of his family. But I found that out years later.

My mother has a wonderful story. She was working in White Hall and was an academic advisor in Secondary Education. And she tells a good story where she was going out at noon to the post office and was standing there when armed guards - when the National Guards with guns drawn - came running in past her, and she was thinking, boy, I guess I shouldn't be here, and went back to her office to make sure that her - the secretaries and file clerks wouldn't be left there because obviously something was up.

My sister was very wounded psychologically in that she was definitely wanting to be a part of all of that and yet wasn't quite there and - maybe that's too hard, harsh, but it really, I think, tormented her in many, many ways; as it did the students who were maybe freshmen. And she really did, and my brother didn't even live in the area and, at that time, and he didn't have any experience, really, or any response to it. So that was kind of the family experience of it all.

And over the years my father just clammed up - wouldn't talk about it - and my mother just saw it as being tragic, and as the years have gone on, I really haven't even thought about it. People would ask us every time we'd go anywhere as a family. We went to Canada that summer to visit friends. We pulled up at - this, 1970, the summer of 1970 - we pulled up to customs to go into Canada; the first thing they asked us,"Where are we from?" and when we told them they said, "Well, are they still shooting students down there?" We went to Washington, D.C., went in to the White House - took a tour of the White House - asked where we were from, said the same thing. And I lived in California for a few years, five years, every time they would ask me where I was from, same thing. So, I guess I'm kind of like the rest of us - branded. And now that I'm working in the Archives with all the photographs, and processing some of the collections that are coming in, it's bringing it all back and I didn't think I had too many emotions about it, but I lost it in class the other night. I'm taking graduate class and just, boom, the tears came.

[Interviewer]: Do you remember your feelings? You've told the story; do you remember your feelings?

[Marsha Keith]: Fear. Um, a lot of fear. Fear of not knowing what was going on. Fear of the emotions that were running around in the household. Um, not having any control; not having any say. Not being able to go anywhere, you know, curfew. Tanks - er, um, helicopters flying over at night with the lights. Disbelief. That's about it, really. Yeah.

[Interviewer]: Is there anything else that's jogged your memory on before we terminate this?

[Marsha Keith]: No, I don't think so.

[Interviewer]: Okay. That's fine.

[Marsha Keith]: That's it.

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