In Akron Ohio in the 1960's the entire sky lit up by a fast moving, rumbling object bigger than the Moon with molten colors on the surface, but no tail. What was it?

Lea Curry ( lea@sirius.com) on 25 March 1997 writes:

"In the mid 1960's in the summer in Akron Ohio around 8-10PM the entire sky lit up like high noon seconds before anything was visible. Then a fireball appeared several times larger than the Moon. Every color and a boiling surface moving slow enough to see molten colors moving on the surface. No tail. Hissing sound. It disappeared, and then the sky stayed bright for a second or two. Rumbling sound went away slowly .Entire event lasted about 5 seconds."

This 'Ohio Fireball' was briefly described in the December 1967 issue of Sky and Telescope on page 413. It happened on September 10, 1967 at 8:50 PM and was observed from northern Ohio. It moved from east to west and was observed to break up into two bodies near Oberlin. The only observers that notified SKy and Telescope were J. Tucciarone in Hubbard, D. van Atta and R. Long in Oberlin and L. Wynn in Bucyrus. You must have been right underneath the damn thing. I envy you your experience. Very few humans are privileged to be in the right place at the right time to see nature at its most awesome.