Sandra Scheuer, struck in the neck by an Ohio National Guardsman's bullet, was a girl with a bubbly personality who was always doing things for others, said a note from a friend that's preserved in a scrapbook kept by her sorority, Alpha Xi Delta.
"We think about her every day," said the Kent State chapter's current president, Sarah Franciosa.
Jeffrey Miller was a drummer and a radio DJ whose 5-foot-6 stature earned him the on-air name of "Short Mort," recalled his older brother, Russ.
On the night of the shootings, still unaware that Jeff had been killed, Russ Miller watched TV news reports about Kent State with their grandmother in the Bronx. She asked if Jeff had gone to the rally. "No doubt," Russ Miller answered, knowing his brother's strong feelings against the war. "But I wasn't concerned, because I knew he would keep his head down."
Miller died, shot in the mouth.
Florence Schroeder used a walker to make her way to the stage. "On May 4, 1970, I was 50 years old, with brown hair and good legs," she said. "Today, I'm 90 and can no longer pitch batting practice."
Her son William Knox Schroeder was an Eagle Scout and an honor student who was walking to class when he was shot in the back from a rifle more than a football field's length away. "The death of a child is very hard, but life goes on," his mother said. She read the last line of a poem he wrote: "Learning from the past is a prime consideration."
"I pray we have all learned that lesson," she said.
Allison Krause's long-ago boyfriend, Barry Levine, spoke of a "sweet, intelligent, loving, warm, intelligent, compassionate, creative, funny, giving, intelligent woman - and if I didn't use the word intelligent, forgive me. Allison was as bright as they come.
"She sat on the hill where you now sit," he said. "She walked on those paths where you now stand. Her laughter used to dance through the branches of these trees."
She was shot in the side as Levine pulled her behind a car for shelter from the gunfire. She fell, mortally wounded, in his arms.
Levine, who has rarely spoken publicly about the events of that day, made an impassioned and at times angry appeal for justice for the shootings.
Eight Guardsmen were indicted on federal charges, but a judge dismissed the case. A civil lawsuit was settled without an admission of wrongdoing.
Me too! I was in kindergarten.
