chrismschneider.com

The Crossing Portrait Series

  • Nancy Alles Stroh stands on the tracks at the place where the school bus she was riding was hit by a passenger train on Dec. 14, 1961. Nancy suffered broken vertebrae and ribs. Several of her relatives were killed in the accident.
  • Colleen Yetter Lackey, left, and her sister, LaDean Yetter Long, stand in a field near their parents' home in Weld County. They continue to feel the pain of losing many of their friends in the train-bus crash of Dec. 14, 1961. The sisters got up late that morning and missed the bus, but their cousin, Jerry Hembry, ran for the bus and made it. He survived.
  • Don Girnt was a trooper with the Colorado State Patrol when a Union Pacific passenger train struck a school bus on Dec. 14, 1961, killing 20 children. It was the worst traffic accident in Colorado history. The crash and its aftermath have altered lives in unexpected and profound ways. Girnt was the first officer on the scene that day and was the lead investigator for the state patrol.
  • Juanita and Art Larson, shown at their home in Gilcrest, have endured a lot during more than 60 years of marriage. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the 1950s, and on Dec. 14, 1961, their son, Steve, was killed when a Union Pacific passenger train smashed into his school bus. Their daughter, Alice, was critically injured but recovered.
  • Portrait of Smith Freeman who was a passenger on the school bus that was struck by a train on Dec. 14, 1961. Twenty children, including his sister, were killed in the crash.
  • Becky Alles Badley stands near a swing outside her home in the Auburn area. Born just two months after the train-bus crash, she has many questions about her big sister, Linda Alles, who died in the accident.
  • Karen Walso Schott looks out the front window of her home in Greeley. Born 11 months after the train-bus collision, she has spent a lifetime wondering about her sister, Linda, who died in the accident.
  • Bruce Ford, a survivor of the Dec. 14, 1961, train-bus accident, is shown at his ranch in Kersey. Bruce's brother, Jimmy, died in the accident while another brother, Glen, survived. Bruce Ford went on to become a rodeo legend.
  • Jerry Hembry sits outside his home in Battle Ground, Wash. At age 16, he was the oldest student on the bus on Dec. 14. 1961, and suffered shoulder injuries when it was hit by a train. He later endured other hardships, including a chemical explosion that took his left eye.
  • Glen Ford guides his school bus along a two-lane road south of Kersey. The middle of three Ford brothers whose bus was hit by a train on Dec. 14, 1961, Glen spent years on the rodeo circuit. Then, in 1984, he took a job driving a school bus in the same area where the crash occurred.
  • 20110515_Adds_0005_2
  • Port_bus_0010
  • Smith Freeman, shown outside his home near Berthoud, survived the train-bus accident along with his sister, Joy. But their sister, Melody, died in the crash. A religious man, Smith believes he will one day go to heaven and be reunited with Melody.
  • Editorial
  • What They Brought With Them: Refugee Portraits
  • Collateral Damage: The War inside Iraq's Hospitals
  • Fractured Minds: Inside an Iraqi Mental Asylum
  • Jonathan's Journey: Colorado's First Pediatric AIDS Patient
  • Prison Babies: The Mennonites of New Horizons
  • We are not Homeless: A Family's Struggle on the Streets
  • Three Cheers for Megan
  • Portraits
  • The Crossing Portrait Series
  • The Boys of Spring Portraits: The Colorado Rockies
  • Sports
  • Badwater Ultramarathon
  • Masked Avengers: Colorado's Lucha Libre Scene
  • Colorado Floods
  • Private Galleries
  • Biography
  • Contact
  • Resumé
  • Links
  • Clients and Publications

© Chris Schneider 2011. Site design © 2010-2025 Neon Sky Creative Media