Hostages
THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 1981
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Texas bells for hostages
Freedom celebrations take many forms
United Press International
A huge star that had shone atop Franklin M ountain
near El Paso since Christmas 1979 in memory of the
hostages finally was extinguished, its mission com
pleted, America s hostages back on free soil.
With trees and street signs across the state draped
in yellow ribbons, Texans Tuesday celebrated the
release of the 52 hostages after 444 days of captivity.
In Dallas, county commissioners raised the flag in
front of the county courthouse from half-mast for the
first time in months.
The bells in Dallas’ ThanksGiving Square were
struck 52 times in honor of the 52 captives shortly
after officials there heard President Reagan say the
hostages’ plane was in the air.
“Everybody’s excited down here. There are a lot
of people coming down and standing around, watch
ing them (the bells) ring,” said spokeswoman Jimmie
Lowe.
Saying his prayers had been answered, a disillu
sioned Iranian national now living in Port Arthur
vowed to thank in person one day the American
hostage who helped him flee Iran just hours before
hostage crisis began.
The Iranian, who asked not to be identified be
cause he still has family in Iran, left his country Nov.
4, 1979, on a visa arranged by American Vice Consul
Ernest Cooke. The Iranian did not know until he
arrived in the United States that the hostages had
been taken that same day.
“I will find him one day and I will thank him,” said
the young Iranian, whose American wife was in the
United States when he was trying to get out of Iran.
Throughout the 14 months Cooke was held, the
Iranian prayed for him.
In Fort Worth, downtown Christmas lights were
turned on until the hostages returned to America.
In south Abilene, Marguerite Allen set out 20
t American flags and tied 400 yards of yellow ribbons
on trees, bushes and pillars at Crossroads Shopping
Center.
The people in Balch Springs, home of hostage
Johnny McKeel, were ahead of the rest of the state,
spending a rainy and cold Monday tying yellow rib
bons on trees.
The “Welcome Home, Johnny” committee is
planning a parade “for when Johnny comes home,”
said co-chairman Patricia Erickson. The parade is
tentatively set for Feb. 7.
“I’m so keyed up I haven’t been able to accomplish
a thing today,” said the other co-chairman, Sandy
Wood.
Batch Springs hostage told
mother was dead; she’s not
United Press International
BALCH SPRINGS — Marine Sgt.
Johnny McKeel Jr., free of the Ira
nian militants who held him hostage
for 444 days, made a telephone call
from Wiesbaden, West Germany, to
the woman his captors had said was
dead — his mother.
Wynona McKeel said her son did
not learn the news of her death was a
lie until arriving in Wiesbaden,
where American officials sent to wel
come the freed hostages told him she
was just fine.
They delivered to him a "welcome
home” box full of letters and pic
tures, all proving to Johnny his
mother was alive.
“They told him I was dead when
they interrogated him,” Mrs.
McKeel said. “They told him they’d
let him come home for the funeral if
he told them what they wanted to
know. ”
Mrs. McKeel had not been overly
critical of the Iranians while her son,
27, and 51 other Americans were
held, but Wednesday she called
them “stupid, barbaric fanatics.”
In their telephone conversation,
Mrs. McKeel said Johnny was con
cerned about the welfare of his fami
ly and how Americans had felt about
the hostages.
“He seemed to think the govern
ment had forgotten them. They
didn’t know anything that was going
on,” she said.
Mrs. McKeel said she and her hus
band, Johnny Sr., reassured their
son during the phone call, which
came about 2 a.m. Wednesday, that
no one in America had ever forgotten
the captives during their long ordeal.
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Hostage Royer from Houston tells family
693-3716
Sun. 10-6
he’s taken up jogging and wants an outfit
United Press International
|-|rt HOUSTON — Former hostage
Bill Royer told his mother by phone
Wednesday he had taken up jogging
and wanted to buy an outfit because
he would soon be running outside.
The phone call Mrs. Dorothy
Royer was waiting for came at 3 a. m.
' “We told him we didn’t wait for
him for dinner,’’ Mrs. Royer said as
she gleefully answered questions,
:aragB laughing and smiling as she recalled
the 45-minute conversation with her
son from a Wiesbaden, West Ger
many, hospital where he and the 51
other freed hostages had just ar
rived.
! “Hewas in great spirits,” she said.
r ■ T bew Bill would come home that
Royer, 49, was a teacher with the
International Communications
Agency when enprisoned in the
takeover of the American Embassy
in Iran.
next door, revolved around ques
tions Royer asked concerning his
family. He mentioned he wanted to
buy a jogging outfit and shoes, and
start running when he got home.
let w
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Neuteii
way.
The first glimpse Mrs. Royer got
of her son was while she was praying
for him in church Tuesday night. A
local TV station had provided her
with a mini-television set so she
could monitor the activities, and she
saw him as he stepped off a plane in
Algiers.
“I almost didn’t want to look.
Some of the hostages looked so
apprehensive, but not my Bill,” she
said.
She said the phone conversation,
which sounded like he was as close as
“He’s been jogging standing still.
He probably would like to get out in
some open space,” she said.
The symbolic yellow-ribbon pin
Mrs. Royer, 79, has been wearing for
months is gone from her lapel. She
gave it away, but her home is deco
rated with yellow ribbons, flowers
and balloons.
A yellow rose, nestled next to a
photograph of Royer, sits on the
mantel. Nearby are wrapped Christ
mas presents.
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