Florence Rogers, a survivor of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing dubbed “Mother Goose” because she helped other victims of the attack, died Monday. She was 88.
Rogers was one of the more than 600 survivors of the April 19, 1995, bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, KOCO-TV reported. She was the president of the Federal Employee Credit Union in the building and was conducting a meeting in her third-floor office when the blast occurred at 9:02 a.m., according to KOTV.
Eighteen of her 33 employees were killed, KOCO reported.
Amy Downs, another survivor of the bombing, said that Rogers “was like family” to people who lived through the horrific event.
“Florence led us through the darkest of times, and we emerged stronger on the other side, thanks to her unwavering leadership,” Downs, now the president and CEO of Allegiance Credit Union,” said in a Facebook post. “She earned the nickname Mother Goose because although she was tough, she loved all her employees and treated them as if they were her own. She will be greatly missed, but her legacy of strength and compassion will continue to inspire us.”
“I talked to her about a month and a half ago and we had a long conversation for about an hour, and I knew that she had been struggling with her health and she told me she said, ‘You know, it won’t be long and I’m going to join,” Downs told KOCO. “‘I’m going to join the other 18.’”
Kari Watkins, president and CEO of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, called Rogers “a force.”
“I talked to several ... families yesterday just letting them know and I think she was such a force, people thought she would be here forever. That’s why the museum is here. To teach the story beyond all of our lives,” Watkins said. “We’ll always tell Florence’s stories and the people who worked with her and know her will always have that impact that she made to them.”
According to the FBI, 168 people were killed, including 19 children. Several hundred others were injured. A third of the building was reduced to rubble, and more than 300 nearby buildings were damaged or destroyed, the agency said.
In a 2016 video, Rogers recalled that “it had to be longer but it felt like seconds” after the bomb went off.
“All the girls that were in the office with me disappeared. I thought they had ran out and left me alone. I started hollering, “Where are you guys? Where are you guys?” Rogers said. “Then, realization set in somewhat, and I realized that I don’t know where they are. They are gone. Eventually, I found out, that when the bomb went up and everything started coming down, that the seven floors above us had took them down into what was eventually known as the pit.
“There was just an eerie silence that fell over that whole scene. The papers were still fluttering. When the glass and stuff stopped, you know, there was glass found on buildings blocks away, everywhere. But this eerie silence was something.”
Rogers was hired at the credit union in 1964 and was appointed office manager in 1971, according to the Federal Employees Credit Union’s post. She was named president and CEO in 1983, a role she held until her retirement in 1997.
“Florence was instrumental in the process of establishing the (Oklahoma City) Memorial and Museum,” the museum wrote on Facebook. “Even in her great pain she had an optimistic view of life and incredible sense of humor.”
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