Yellow Ribbons, Silence Recall Mass Slaying
Postal workers wearing yellow ribbons and corsages observed a moment of silence and went home early Thursday, the first anniversary of the day a part-time employee pulled two guns from a mailbag and killed 14 co-workers.
“We’re trying to give everyone a short day today,” said Bob Hunt, the acting postmaster since March. “We stopped and observed a moment of silence at 6:17 a.m. It was very heartwarming. It just made shivers go up and down your spine.”
It was shortly after 7 a.m. on Aug. 20, 1986, that Patrick Henry Sherrill, 44, a part-time mail carrier who had been reprimanded by his supervisors the day before, began shooting other workers, killing 14 and wounding six before he killed himself.
Thursday, two floral sprays flanked the flagpole in front of the Edmond Post Office. A yellow ribbon was tied around the flag pole, and similar yellow ribbons decorated a few mailboxes in this city of 35,000 about 10 miles north of Oklahoma City.
An evening memorial service was planned at Edmond High School.
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