HERRIN, IL (WSIL) -- Ever since she was 19 years old, author Angela Mason has been fascinated by the 1925 Tri-State Tornado.
"When I was a teenager, my grandpa was talking to me one day about this big storm," Mason said. "He proceeded to tell me about this giant tornado that I had never heard of."
Mason visited the Herrin Library Friday to talk about her book, "Death Rides The Sky" and tell stories about her experience writing the book.
Mason says she has always been fascinated by natural disasters. However, she was taken aback when her grandpa told her about what is known as the Tri-State Tornado.
"This was one of the biggest events to ever happen in southern Illinois," Mason said, "and it did change the landscape for many of these communities and villages it struck.
Mason eventually started working at a newspaper in White County. With the interest of the tornado still in the back of her mind, she decided she wanted to write more about the event.
"The interest where we were in White County was so heavy that my publisher suggested, almost half-heartedly and jokingly, he suggested I should write a book," said Mason. "I thought about it and said, 'that's a good idea.'"
In 1999, with the curiosity she gained from her grandpa and聽a determination to preserve history, the then single mother loaded her kids in a car and drove to where the tornado started in Ellington, MO.
"One of the things that struck me from community to community, whether it's Missouri or 九游体育 Illinois or Indiana, the survivors... you can't imagine what it would do to you," Mason said.
Many of the people she interviewed during her venture along the tornado's path were small children when the tornado hit.
"I felt like I was under a time restraint because these people were elderly," said Mason. "These people were in their 80s and 90s, but they remembered it like it was yesterday," Mason recalls. "That was the first thing that [struck me]. Their memories were so clean even though they were just eight, nine, 10 years old when it happened. They remember it like it was yesterday."
Even though it was a passion project, Mason admits there were times the journey was rough.
"The sorrow. The grief. It was so overwhelming it came across with everyone I spoke with," Mason said. "Every person I spoke with lost a loved one.
Mason says focusing on stories from the survivors was one of her main focuses.
"You can't get any more accurate than someone who lived right through it," said Mason. "You let them tell it in their own words. You don't paraphrase. You let the reader feel that raw emotion that's coming from that person who's going to be reliving this until the end of their days, which might not be too long from the moment I interviewed them."
Mason hopes that when readers engage in her book, they can feel each person's emotion as they recall that horrific time.
"I really can't relate it from the podium or from the stage, but you'll pick up that these people, their lives were shattered," said Mason.
"Everything was blown away. The resolve of these people is so stunning to me. They were self-sufficient, to begin with, and then this happened. It was utter devastation, and people pulled themselves together from it."
You can pick up a copy of the book at your local library, or you can go to or to purchase a copy.
