60 years later, boat that sank in freak storm still shrouded in mystery

LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. — On May 28, 1954, Memorial Day Weekend, 13 people boarded an excursion boat named Grand Glaize, for a tour of the Lake of the Ozarks. Nearly half of them would never set foot on land again.

Only about four miles into the trip, a freak storm blew across the Lake. High winds—possibly even a tornado—capsized the boat. In the end, six people were killed and seven survived, including the captain.

So goes one of the many narratives surrounding one of the Lake of the Ozarks’ biggest mysteries.

The Central Missouri Leader newspaper ultimately reported 15 people had been on board. “Three women, one child, two young men, and two 16 year old girls drown in Lake’s worst tragedy,” the front-page story began, connecting the disappearance of a newlywed couple to the tragedy. Thomas and Dorothy (Buckley) Fahey, married on May 15, 1954, were not originally thought to have boarded the Grand Glaize. But when their car was found abandoned near the boat’s port of origin, it fed speculation that they may have perished along with the other six aboard the boat.

Captain Charles Meyer (CWO3, USCG, retired), the owner of TowBoatUS Lake of the Ozarks (LakeTow LLC), has been fascinated—even obsessed—with the story of the Grand Glaize for years. He, along with the late Mike Gillespie, a noted Lake-area historian, pored over newspaper clippings, interviewed the boat’s captain, scoured court records, and read—and re-read—witness testimonies.

Now, as the event’s 60th anniversary approaches, Meyer and others have planned a Memorial Wreath Ceremony, at 2:30 p.m. on May 28. He says the memorial is meant to recognize the gravity of water-related tragedies in the early year of the Lake of the Ozarks. It will also serve as “a tribute to the major strides made in Boating Safety and Search & Rescue responses currently available on Lake of the Ozarks, which in part, are a result of lessons learned from tragedies such as this,” he said.

Meyer had considered penning a book about the incident; for now, his years’ worth of gleaned information is harbored in unglamorous computer files and printouts. But the details those files contain range from heart-wrenching to mind-bending.

Among them:

The disappearance of Thomas and Dorothy (Buckley) Fahey
The disputed number of people killed in the incident. Some say six; others say eight. Meyer notes that two other people drowned in an unrelated incident that weekend, bringing the number of people drowned or missing on that Memorial Day weekend to 10
The suddenness and ferociousness of the storm. Meyer notes historical records reveal there was a tornado confirmed in Miller County that day.
The age of the captain: at 18 years old, Perry Graham Jr. was one of the youngest certified captains in the state. He is now the only known living survivor of the incident.
Loc-Wood Boats, the owner of Grand Glaize, put the boat back in service in less than two weeks after the incident, with Graham Jr. again at the helm. Four years later, another of Loc-Wood’s vessels—the Tuscumbia—ran over and killed a skier on the Lake, in the same area that the Grand Glaize capsized.

Truly, the story has all the makings of a major motion picture. In fact, it was featured on the Animal Planet TV show “River Monsters,” (Season 4, Ep. 1) where wild speculation about the fate of the three people whose bodies were never found landed on a theory that they were eaten by giant catfish.

TV sensationalism aside, the disappearance of those three—along with several other elements surrounding the Grand Glaize tragedy—remains shrouded in a seemingly impenetrable mystery.

LakeExpo.com will use Meyer’s documents along with photos to explore that mystery further through a series of articles, in the days leading up to the commemoration of one of the most tragic and mysterious boating incidents the Lake has ever seen.