KENT, Ohio — “It was over 50 years ago, but there are certain things in your life that you remember forever.”

Gayle Manning was a sophomore at Kent State 51 years ago. When she got back to campus after a weekend away she noticed something was wrong.

“We came back on Sunday afternoon and there was this big tank sitting there in the front right where you enter and we thought, 'Oh my golly," Manning said. "We knew that there were some issues, but we didn’t realize it was this bad.”

While she was out of town, student protests against the Vietnam war and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia intensified on Kent’s campus. An ROTC building was burned. That’s when Gov. Jim Rhodes called in the troops.

“Tents were everywhere and we drove by the National Guard. It was eerie,” she said.

Manning said May 4th started out as a beautiful spring day. But it quickly became a national nightmare and a dark spot in Ohio history.

As students gathered on Blanket Hill, troops began launching tear-gas canisters. Protestors retreated up the hill and National Guard soldiers followed. Then, they opened fire.

“We were getting ready to eat lunch, and two girls came running in a said “they’ve killed them - they’ve killed them all” Manning recalls.

Manning rushed back to her dorm to find out what was going on. She called her boyfriend who had been at the scene.

“The phone went dead. They cut off all the phones. So we had no idea what was going on, we couldn’t leave,” she said.

Silence. For hours, she said. Students frantically tried to figure out what was going on, but information was scarce.

“A little later, a truck went by with a big bull horn and said: “You have until sunset to get out of town.”

She packed up her car and headed home. It wasn’t until she turned on the TV at her mother’s house that the gravity of the situation sank in.

“They’re hitting kids that were hiding behind cars and killing them. Kids that were just watching. You’re shocked that these things could happen in the United States and in Ohio,” she said.

Four students died that day.

Alison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder.

Living through the event of having her peers gunned down is something she still carries.

“It always sticks with you. It's one of those things that’s upsetting," she said, fighting back tears.

She said that day left an indelible mark on her, shaping her career and life’s work.

What started at a desk at Kent State, eventually led to a desk in the House of Representatives.

She now fights for the people of Lorain, carrying with her the lessons of Kent State.

“You have to stand up for your principals. Even if you’re the only one. You have to stand up for what you believe.”