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    The Jubilee Singers. (1875). Image courtesy of the New York Public Library.

Deaths: May 20, 1960

From the May 20, 1960 issue of the Nashville Globe

  • BEDFORD, Mrs. Hattie – May 14, at a local nursing home
  • CECIL, Wade – May 10 at a local hospital
  • COLLIER,  Mrs. Daisy – May 14 at a local infirmary
  • COPELAND, Rev. Thornton – May 16 at a hospital in Detroit, Mich.
  • CROOK, Mrs. Katie – May 9 in Chicago, Ill.
  • CURTIS, John Bowing – May 8th at a local hospital
  • FOWKLES, Mrs. Annie Bell – May 17 at her home 1720 Jefferson St.
  • HAMPTON, Mr. Thomas – suddenly May 16 at a local hospital
  • HARRIS, Mrs. Rhoda Ann – May 9 at a local infirmary
  • HARVEY, Mr. William McKinley – suddenly May 13 at a local infirmary
  • KNIGHT, Mr. Willie Rogers – suddenly May 15 at a local hospital.
  • MALONE, Mrs. Mary Kate-Lyda – May 14 at a local infirmary
  • SAMPLE, Mr. William – May 16 at his residence 594 J.C. Napier Cts.
  • SIMS Sr., Mr. Harvey R. – May 15 in Phoenix, Arizona
  • SWANSON, Miss Georgia Lee – suddenly May 9 at a local infirmary
  • TERRY, Dr. Maggie E. – May 15 at residence of sister 2107 Osage St.
  • WATSON Sr., Mr. Cain – May 9 at his residence in Cincinatti, Ohio

Arsenic in their Coffee

Trenton Evening Times (New Jersey)
29 Jul 1889

Dastardly Attempt to Poison the South’s Richest Colored Woman.  Nashville, Tenn., July 29 —- Lucy Bedford, aged 85, and Emily Parsons, her niece, both colored,  have been poisoned by arsenic which was placed in their coffee.  Miss Parsons died last night and Miss Bedford is in a critical condition.  Lucy Bedford is probably the riches colored woman in the south, having been given an estate worth $100,000 by the will of her former owner.  Four negro servants of Miss Bedford are under arrest on suspeicion of the crime, the object of which is unkonw.   It is said that on Miss Bedford’s death her property is to revert to relatives of her former master. 

Catherine Small a negro woman who had formally been employed as a cook, confessed that she put arsenic in the coffee in order to kill Gracey Hunter, a negress who now cooks for the old women, and whom Catherine accused of taking her place in their employ.  She is in jail.