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.
