Babb's Switch School House Fire

The torment and hurt of one couple whose little girl, Mary Elizabeth Edens, who was never found amid the ashes of the school house building remains, could only assume that their little girl had been completely destroyed in this devastating fire.  They were not able of closure in laying the remains to rest.  Many years passed, but little Mary Elizabeth was never forgotten by her parents and siblings.  The little girls aunt who died two days after the fire, managed to tell the Edens that she had handed her daughter unhurt to someone outside before she collapsed.  Little did they know what awaited them more than thirty years after the day of devastation. In the early part of 1957 the lost was found.  Mrs. Grace Reynolds of Barstow, California was discovered to be the little Mary Elizabeth Edens.  Apparently, during the activity of the fire when a couple was  handed little Mary Elizabeth outside the building  this couple was not from the area, and they took the little girl with them probably believing the parents had died in the fire.  Reports of investigartors had found they had went first to Arkansas, then to Kansas, and then finally abandoned her in California.  The little girl was left on her own.    At the age of about 15 she was adopted.  She later married and started a family, never knowing anything about her parents or other relatives.  The following is articles that were in The Oklahoman, this is just a small portion of them that were printed.

LONG-LOST 'VICTIM' SEES BABBS SWITCH
The Oklahoman, Feb. 10, 1957 Page 128

Saturday was a day of rejoicing in Hobart as the long-lost victim of the tragic Babbs Switch school fire and her family began bridging the gap left by the last 32 years.  The jubilant L. F. Edends family spent the day greeting a steady stream of visitors to their home and answering calls from hundreds of curious Hobart friends anxious to meet their daughter and confirm first hand reports that the missing person had been found.
The fire victim, Mrs. Grace Reynolds, now a prominent 36-year-old Barstow, California business woman alternately smiled and cried as she met her parent's friends and relatives.
Saturday afternoon she visited the farm where her parents lived at the time she disappeared, inspected the old Babbs Switch school site near Hobart and stood crying at the cemetery where the 36 persons who died in the fire are buried.
The Edens family meanwhile made telephone calls to relatives in all sections of the country to report the discovery of their daughter.
They're all coming here, Mrs. Edens told newsmen Saturday afternoon.  They will start arriving here tomorrow (Sunday).  You just can't realize how happy we are now.  Words just cannot describe our joy.
The Edens couple was present at a school program on Christmas eve 1924 at the Babbs Switch school when a fire broke out.  A panic developed in the tiny one-room school house.  Thirty six persons were killed, about 80 injured, including the Edens couple.
All of the victims in the fire were accounted for except the Edens 3 1/2 years old daughter, Mary Elizabeth.  No trace of her could be found in the ashes of the school house.  In the confusion the night of the fire no one had remembered seeing her.
An aunt had been holding the child when the fire broke out.  She managed to stagger outside, and died two days later.  But she made a death bed statement saying she had managed to get Mary Elizabeth out and thrust her into the arms of someone standing outside the school building.  The aunt had managed to keep the child from being burned.
A long, seemingly hopeless search followed.  But the Edens never gave up the belief that their daughter was alive somewhere.  They had concluded some childless couple had taken the child, thinking its parents were dea.
A newspaper story last autumn was read by friends of Mrs. Reynolds in Barstow.  An investigation was begun and evidence discovered which convined the Edens coupe and Mrs. Reynolds that she was the missing Babb's Switch fire victim.
Mrs. Reynolds flew to Oklahoma City to meet the Edens couple and their two married daughters, Mrs. Betty Reynolds of Hobart and Mrs. Wilburn Henderson of 4308 NW 13 in Oklahoma City. 
Mrs. Reynolds said she recalls being taken to California where she was abandoned, later worked for room and board and was finally adopted by a San Diego woman when she was 15.
I gave myself a name, she said.  I even picked my own birthday.  (She picked her age at three years older than she really is).  I remember having all sorts of trouble trying to get a birth certificate, and trying to find out something about my background, she said.
There is no question in my mind now but that the Edens are my real parents, she told newsmen.
Mrs. Reynolds said she plans to spend at least a week with her parents in Hobart and then return to Barstow.
We're trying to get her to move back to Oklahoma, Mrs. Edens told newsmen Saturday afternoon.  We need her out here.  There is so much time we have to make up.
Mrs. Reynolds is divorced now and has a 12 year old son, Louis, and a 2 month old adopted son, Leon.
A photograph of the son strongly resembles a son of Mrs. Betty Reynolds of Hobart who is almost the same age.
The discovery of the Edens daughter was the principal topic of conversation in Hobart Saturday.  Many of the city's residents witnessed the fire and many still bear scars from it.  Most were intimately acquainted with the mystery of the missing Edens child.
The Edens family had kept is investigations and coorespondence with Mrs. Reynolds in California a secret until their reunion in Oklahoma City Friday afternoon.  Relatives explained they didn't want to make any mistakes in identification or encourage hopes that she had been found until they were positive themselves.  Her 12 year old son has the same name as her father, Louis Ebens.