Here is some more... with condolences to the McCleary - holding you all in the light,
lorcan

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Last survivor of Ludlow Massacre dies at 94

By TAMMY ALHADEF THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1183703953/14

Mary Benich-McCleary, the last known survivor of the Ludlow
Massacre, has died of a stroke.

McCleary, 94, of Morgan City, La., died June 28.

She was 18 months old when the Colorado militia attacked
striking miners and their families on April 20, 1914, at the
Ludlow mining camp north of Trinidad during a labor strike.

McCleary, her parents John and Dominika "Minnie" Benich, and
her two brothers narrowly escaped death when the militia
attacked the striking miners' tent colony.

The conductor of the train that brought the militia members to
the tent colony saved many lives, said McCleary's daughter,
Bridget McCleary-Arcemont, also of Morgan City.

"He saw women holding babies - probably my grandmother - and
stopped the train before the militia could mow them down with
gunfire," she said.

McCleary's father rescued 3-year-old John while her mother
scooped up baby Tom, who was just 9 days old. They ran for the
Black Hills southeast of town. "They ran along the tracks just
under the gunfire. When they got up there they realized there
was no Mary," McCleary-Arcemont said.

According to family lore, a 16-year-old boy from a neighboring
tent heard Mary's cries and gathered her up into his coat
before running for safety. The family did not know of Mary's
fate until she and the boy were found several days later,
hunkered down under the trees, still hiding. Mary was still
hidden inside his coat and he was shaking violently.

"That boy was never the same," said McCleary-Arcemont. "I
think the ordeal just ruined him mentally."

McCleary-Arcemont said her grandfather, who like her
grandmother was a Yugoslavian immigrant, continued working as
a coal miner until the 1940s. By then, the Benich family had
grown to 14.

"They were such a beautiful family," she said. "So loving. And
all 12 kids turned out to be something. They all graduated
high school and they all did things with their lives."

McCleary met her husband, Abner "Mac" Fredrick McCleary, in
California during World War II. He was a Marine. She was a
riveter at Douglas Aircraft and helped build B-17 bombers. The
couple raised four children: Bridget, James "Pat" Patrick,
Karen and Stephen. She lived to see 12 grandchildren and 13
great-grandchildren. "Mac" McCleary died in 1977.

While the experience of the coal camp massacre stayed with the
Benich family, McCleary's daughter, Karen Adams, said family
members didn't like to speak of it.

"It was hard times, that's all we really know," she said.
"They just did what they had to do to survive."

McCleary's younger sister Frances, of Farmington, N.M., is the
last surviving sibling.