LITTLE LUCILE WATSON BURNED TO DEATH The Messenger, Hamlet, NC - Thursday, January 25, 1917 Issue Shared by James Utley Contact Myrtle Bridges June 7, 2015
Little Lucille, the four-and-a-half year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth A. Watson, was so badly burned Friday afternoon at four-thirty o'clock that she died just eight hours later at twelve-thirty Saturday morning. She was given permission by her mother, whose room was upstairs, to go down and play in the yard, as she had asked for that privilege. Sarah, her six-year-old sister, went over to Mr. A.B. Edwards while she went in to the back yard, built a lightwood fire under an old galvanized tub and proceded to cook mud cakes and pies for there sat a small tin bucket by the tub and tin cups with the mud in them, one a little way off on an improvised table. There were three pieces of lightwood partially consumed and several matches that had been struck. Her six-year-old sister found her burning and succeeded in getting her in the dining room. Here she lay down on the carpet which was scorched. When her mother came from up- stairs she was sitting on the second step with the few remnants of her clothes still burning. She rushed with her to the bath tub. Nothing was intact except shoes and stockings. Besides her body and arms her ears were burned, but only two places on her face. Soon after the burned places turned brown. In a short time a physician and trained nurse were there and all was done that could be, but nothing could save her life. The funeral services were conducted by Rev. M.H. Tuttle, pastor of the Methodist church, at three o'clock Saturday afternoon at the home and the little body laid to rest in the Hamlet Cemetery. There were many beautiful floral designs. Little Lucile was a beautiful and bright child and one of four, Mr. Watson also has four by his first wife. The sympathy of the whole community goes out to Mr. and Mrs. Watson in their great grief and bereavement.
Return to What's New in Richmond County
