Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 15, 1994 TAG: 9401150057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LAKELAND, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Both performers who followed their dreams to "The Greatest Show on Earth" were killed in the derailment of a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus train Thursday that injured 14 others.
"Life slapped us in the face," ringmaster Jim Ragona said Friday. "We're trying to get it together. We're talking to each other and dealing with our feelings."
Ringling officials canceled three performances in Orlando through Saturday evening to give crews time to check the safety of equipment aboard the 53-car train. Sixteen passenger cars jumped the tracks at a rail crossing as the circus moved from St. Petersburg to Orlando in central Florida.
Federal investigators at the scene said Friday they were looking into reports that a wheel assembly flew off a train car and may have contributed to the wreck.
"Shock would be the best word to describe the circus people right now," said the Rev. Jerry Hogan, a priest who counseled the performers Friday.
"They are dealing with the aspect of grief - two people killed. But many of these people have been displaced from their homes. . . . We're a city without a zip code."
Conkling, 28, of Fort Worth, Texas, joined that traveling city two years ago when she gave up her job as a municipal data entry clerk and left for the Ringling Clown College in Venice, on Florida's Gulf Coast.
With her signature bright white makeup, pink hair and wide greasepaint smile, the former high school athlete made the daring falls that brought the biggest laughs.
"We always worried that she would hurt herself in one of her falls," Bonnie Conkling said after learning of her daughter's death. "She told us many times, `If I go, don't worry. I'll go happy.' "
Svertesky ran away to join the circus at age 13. His parents dragged him home the next day. But it didn't dissuade him. Four years later, he went back to the circus and spent the rest of his life training elephants.
"It's kind of a way of life more than a job," Svertesky, a 39-year-old trainer from Bridgeport, Conn., said in an interview last week before taking his first road trip with the circus.
Svertesky had managed the circus's elephant farm in Williston northwest of Orlando since it opened in 1985 and oversaw the breeding of Romeo and Juliette, two yearling Asian elephants who are the headliners of the circus's 124th edition.
Circus owner Kenneth Feld said Friday he planned to meet with the performers and hold a brief memorial service. Performances in Orlando resume tonight.
Added ringmaster Ragona: "The best thing that would happen to this group of people is to put on a show. They need it."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB