Velma Anderson of Bloomington was the last surviving hostage of the infamous O'Kasick brothers kidnappings of 1957 in which two Minneapolis police officers were shot.
Anderson and her husband, since deceased, were forced to pull over by a car carrying three fleeing gunmen who had just killed patrolman Robert Fossum, 31, and critically injured officer Ward Canfield. They took her hostage for about 25 minutes before dumping her in a south Minneapolis alley.
The notorious story was covered in two books, True Detective magazine and in Lee Marvin's "Lawbreakers" television show, in which the Andersons portrayed themselves.
Anderson, 87, died Saturday from congestive heart failure at a Bloomington nursing home, said daughter Roxanne Duvick, of Shakopee.
She said her mother's upbeat outlook didn't change after the horrific abduction or her later loss of an eye in a fall. Duvick said her mom spent nearly 20 years making ceramic figures, especially Santas, and helping others make and fire their ceramics at the Creekside Senior Center in Bloomington. She also worked as a Bloomington school cook.
"She was very friendly, always willing to help out," said a friend, Agnes Scepurek. She said Anderson liked celebrating birthdays with her girlfriends at Old Country Buffet, but she never mentioned her frightening kidnapping of Aug. 17, 1957.
All Minneapolis police cars were called out that night to track the cop killers, who were confronted four weeks later in a second shootout. Roger and Ronald O'Kasick and their hostage, Eugene Lindgren, were killed in what is now Carlos Avery Wildlife Area in Anoka County.
A younger brother, James, 20, received consecutive sentences totaling more than 100 years for his role in Fossum's slaying, Anderson's kidnapping and Lindgren's kidnapping and death, news stories said. O'Kasick killed himself in prison a year after Lindgren's death.
Anderson testified at O'Kasick's murder trial in Minneapolis that she had pleaded with the gunmen, who ordered her husband out of the Andersons' car and abducted her.
"I have two children --please don't do me any harm," she testified she told them, according to a Minneapolis Tribune article. One brother was so nervous holding a gun to her temple that "he kept hitting my head with it." She said when they let her go, she thanked them for not hurting her.
Terry Anderson was 11 when his folks were kidnapped. He said at first he didn't believe it until he started hearing news reports. He said his dad initially slept with a gun under his pillow, but then moved the family in with a relative for several weeks until the O'Kasicks were found.
Duvick noted that James O'Kasick wrote her mother from prison asking forgiveness, which Anderson already had granted.
Anderson also is survived by her son Terry, of Detroit Lakes, Minn., daughter Deb Jordahl, of Eagan, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Oct. 23 at the Cremation Society of Minnesota, 7110 France Av. S., Edina. Visitation is one hour beforehand.
