Family To Celebrate Life Of Race Riot Survivor

People will gather Saturday to remember the life of Hazel Smith-Jones, one of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.

Earl Jones is the grandson of Hazel Smith-Jones who he called "Nana".

He said the 99-year-old lived a long life despite what happened almost 100 years ago.

Hazel Smith-Jones was just a toddler when the riots happened.

She was born in 1919, two years before the riots began.

It's often been called the worst race riot in U.S. history.

The chaos lasted for two days in Tulsa's Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street.

The number of deaths was never confirmed and vary from about three dozen to 300.

Jones' family said she spent much of her life making sure people knew what really happened.

"Just the screams I think were mainly the things that kinda stuck out in her mind along with the cross being burned just not knowing what was going to happen to them. You can imagine being terrorized as a kid being grabbed and snatched up so it was a traumatic experience," said Earl Jones. 

There are two other survivors alive today.

Jones' funeral is at 10 a.m. Saturday morning at the North Peoria Church of Christ.

A procession will go through Greenwood about an hour before the service.

Family from California, Texas, and Kansas City will all be in town to celebrate her life.