COLUMBUS - She was an older woman, perhaps in her early 60s. She walked on the fringe of the open casket of former Gov. James A. Rhodes and then, putting her shawl back on, she headed for the steps to the High Street side of the Statehouse.

When stopped by a reporter, she had a tough time explaining why she had decided to pay her final respects to Mr. Rhodes, who died March 4 at the age of 91. But then as she heard the same question again, phrased slightly differently, the woman explained.

She was there because she felt that Governor Rhodes had done the right thing nearly 31 years ago by calling out the National Guard to Kent State University.

She said she supported what the guardsmen did that day, and no, she would not give her name. But with a dozen or so words, she took us all back there again.

At a press conference, Mr. Rhodes - in the midst of a heated Republican primary for the U.S. Senate against Robert Taft, Jr. - had referred to the anti-Vietnam War demonstrators at Kent State as “worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the night riders and the vigilantes.”

On May 2, 1970, the ROTC building on campus had been burned down after an anti-war demonstration.

Two days later, the guardsmen sent by Mr. Rhodes were trying to stop a noon rally called to protest President Nixon's decision to send U.S. troops into Cambodia, in an expansion of the Vietnam War.

The guardsmen, wearing gas masks, carried M-1 rifles with fixed bayonets. They drove the students up a hill. The students responded with anti-war chants and some rock throwing. When guardsmen fired tear gas canisters, the students threw them back.

At 12:24 p.m., returning to the crest of Blanket Hill, the guardsmen turned and 28 fired between 61 and 67 shots. Four students were killed: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder.

The headline on Mr. Rhodes' obituary last week in The New York Times was: “James Rhodes, Ohio Governor Who Sent the National Guard to Kent State, Dies at 91.”

It is how much of the nation views Mr. Rhodes, but like most headlines, it's not a nuanced view.

The Kent State tragedy was the scar on Mr. Rhodes' record as governor, which stretched from 1963-71 and 1975-83. It should not overshadow his entire life - what he did for all of Ohio and the love he obviously felt for his family - but it also should never be forgotten. After a federal court jury cleared him of any liability in 1975, Mr. Rhodes said: “It was the most sorrowful day of my life. I had a duty to perform, and I performed that duty.”

In 1995, U.S. Judge Don Young told me the guardsmen were “probably not” justified in opening fire on the students. Judge Young, who died in 1996, presided at the 1975 civil trial of the guardsmen in Cleveland and was criticized by families of the victims for being biased in favor of Mr. Rhodes.

Judge Young said in 1995 that he believed the guardsmen were “scared” and unsure of who was in command. Asked if the families of the dead students received justice, Judge Young replied: “Justice, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder.”

As the politicians memorialized Mr. Rhodes last week without any reference to Kent State, it reminded me what Rod Opelt told me in 1995, shortly before the 25th anniversary of the shootings.

Mr. Opelt was at the anti-war rally. It was his 19th birthday. Mr. Opelt, who is from the small town of Lindsey, Ohio, in Sandusky County, was in the crowd that gathered on the Commons after the shooting.

The guardsmen stood in front of what was left of the ROTC building. The chairman of the psychology department helped convince the students to leave, and so Mr. Opelt walked away.

“Right after the students were shot, someone in the dorms played the Buffalo Springfield song, For What It's Worth. It's a song about protest.

“There's a line in there that says, `Nobody is right if everybody is wrong.' Looking back at everything, I would have to say I don't know of anybody there who was totally right,” he said.

Jim Drew is chief of The Blade's Columbus bureau.

First Published March 10, 2001, 3:12 p.m.