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  • How Were Lawsuits Settled After the Donora Death Fog?

    How Were Lawsuits Settled After the Donora Death Fog?

    By

    Andy McPhee

    Donora Death Fog, Donora History, Donora Smog Event
    October 26, 2019

    After Susan Gnora died in the smog, a settlement with US Steel allowed each of her eight children, all of whom were age 20 or older, to receive a bit over half the cost of a new TV.

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  • Donora’s Legacy Still Felt Today

    Donora’s Legacy Still Felt Today

    By

    Andy McPhee

    Donora History
    April 18, 2019

    How has the Donora smog tragedy affected the way we live today?

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  • Secrets of Donora’s Forgotten Cemetery

    Secrets of Donora’s Forgotten Cemetery

    By

    Andy McPhee

    Donora History, Pertinent History
    April 15, 2019

    We tred carefully through the brambles, weeds, and bushes devouring a hillside cemetery in the north end of Donora, Pa. We step from one small monument to another, making our way as close as we can, without a machete, to the largest monument, the one marking the grave of Capt. John Gilmore. Gilmore was a…

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  • Where Did the Smog Victims Live and Die?

    Where Did the Smog Victims Live and Die?

    By

    Andy McPhee

    Donora History, Donora Smog Event
    November 13, 2018

    Knowing where each victim lived — and died — can be instructive for several reasons. Consider how many of those victims and their families must have known each other.

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  • The Acceptable Boundaries of Racism in 1940s Donora

    The Acceptable Boundaries of Racism in 1940s Donora

    By

    Andy McPhee

    Donora History, Pertinent History
    October 26, 2018

    Stacey is right, race relations in the town were indeed strange, but it didn’t seem to bother anyone much, apparently not even black residents.

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  • Social Life in 1940s Donora

    Social Life in 1940s Donora

    By

    Andy McPhee

    Donora History
    October 25, 2018

    For decades during the mid-1900s a Chamber of Commerce sign at the Donora town line read, “NEXT TO YOURS THE BEST TOWN IN THE USA.” Donorans found an odd pride in being a second-best town, no matter where a visitor came from. Perhaps that was to be expected. The town didn’t originate naturally, as a…

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  • Could Donora Happen Again? Here in the US?

    Could Donora Happen Again? Here in the US?

    By

    Andy McPhee

    Donora Death Fog, Donora History, Donora Smog Event
    September 4, 2018

    Certainly there have been strides made in the nation’s ability to combat air pollution. The greater Pittsburgh area, which once served basically as “Air Pollution Central” due to the many steel plants there, has seen continued progress (right) for many years, as have most cities throughout the U.S. We need to remain fully committed to…

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  • Saving Donorans on a Deadly Night

    Saving Donorans on a Deadly Night

    By

    Andy McPhee

    Donora Death Fog, Donora History, Donora Smog Event
    February 21, 2018

    He strapped on the oxygen tank he kept at home, the green one, labeled TO BE FILLED WITH COMPRESSED OXYGEN ONLY, and walked out the back door, onto Thompson Avenue, into the dark fog. Bill Schempp at a fire practice Walking had become so difficult by then that he dropped to his hands and knees…

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  • Donorans, Dressings, and the Fight Against Cancer

    Donorans, Dressings, and the Fight Against Cancer

    By

    Andy McPhee

    Donora History, Pertinent History
    January 18, 2018

    Cancer was once a word uttered soto voce, a word so dangerous it would conjure demons and visions of the Spectre of Death. A barely-known radiologist named Marjorie B. Illig helped to change that, and the women of Donora readily jumped aboard her world-changing vision.

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  • Who Died in Donora’s Deadly Smog?

    Who Died in Donora’s Deadly Smog?

    By

    Andy McPhee

    Donora Death Fog, Donora History, Donora Smog Event
    December 4, 2017

    It seems that not everyone received a death certificate in 1948, or, if they did, it was lost or never archived. Marriage applications, census data, immigration passenger lists, and so forth, are also often inaccurate or provide inconsistent information.

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