Mark Lindquist, tornado survivor, Cardinals fan, dies
Jul. 7—Services for Mark Alan Lindquist, who will be familiar to many Globe readers, will be at 11 a.m. Monday at First Baptist Church in Southwest City. The visitation will be at 10 a.m. Monday at the church.
Lindquist, 63, died July 4 after a battle with cancer.
Lindquist was the subject of frequent stories in the years after the 2011 Joplin tornado, and also was featured in the documentary "Deadline in Disaster," about the Globe's efforts to cover the tornado that killed 161 people and caused widespread devastation in the community.
When the 2011 tornado struck, Lindquist was working at a group home at 2302 Iowa Ave. He tried to save three residents of the home by throwing mattresses on top of them and then climbing on top of the mattresses to hold them down.
Lindquist was severely injured and hospitalized as a "John Doe" for three days. His identity was unknown. His brother, Keith Lindquist, described Mark's hazel-colored eyes with a brown fleck in the right eye to a nurse in the intensive-care unit. She recognized his eyes.
Lindquist was in a coma for seven weeks. Every rib in his body was broken. His lungs were punctured. He lost his teeth. On top of that, he contracted a rare fungal infection.
Michael Byers and Brian Hamlet found Lindquist a couple of houses south of the group home, where he and co-worker Ryan Tackett attempted to protect the three men with Down syndrome. The men, Tripp Miller, Rick Fox and Mark Farmer, died of injuries. Tackett survived.
Lindquist was one of seven people honored by the American Red Cross in 2012 as "Everyday Heroes."
Many of Lindquist's injuries continued to cause him pain and suffering after the tornado.
"Mark's remarkable comeback to life after suffering near-fatal injuries epitomized the strength and determination of Joplin residents in the tornado's aftermath. I still get goose bumps when I think how far Mark had to come to walk and talk, again. There wasn't a dry eye in the audience during our film when you learned of Mark's story of survival as told by the Globe's Wally Kennedy," Beth Pike, co-director of "Deadline in Disaster," said in a statement. "I'm so saddened that cancer took Mark in the end. I hope the years between his recovery to his recent death were good to Mark and that he enjoyed many good seasons of Cardinal baseball. The Redbirds had a faithful fan in Mark."
Baseball had always been a part of Lindquist's life. He was the first McDonald County High School graduate (1978) to receive a baseball scholarship, which took him to MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas, following high school. As an adult, Mark played for the Miller Ponies Baseball Team from Bentonville, Arkansas, according to his obituary.
The Globe profiled Lindquist's recovery and his visit to Busch Stadium for the final game of the 2011 World Series with one of the men who helped rescue him. Lindquist, an avid Cardinals fan, scored two tickets to the game through a connection with a St. Louis TV anchor who had heard about how Lindquist had survived the May 22 tornado.
Lindquist knew instinctively who would get the other one, giving it to Byers, who had helped rescue him.
"I'm paying him back for taking me to the hospital," he said.
That was the season where, in Game 6, the night before, David Freese hit a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning to win it for the Cardinals. The Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of that series.
As a young man, Lindquist played shortstop. His number was 11. As a special touch during the game, the Cardinals organization presented him with a jersey with his name on it, the official World Series patch, and No. 11.
Lindquist, who was born in Redding, California, on Dec. 11, 1959, was living in Bentonville at the time of his death.
Arrangements are being handled Ozark Funeral Home in Anderson.
