BY SHELLIE TAYLOR

On January 7, 1937, The Landmark published a report about a bridal shower in its locals section. The Amity community had celebrated the marriage of a young woman who had grown up there and married her high school sweetheart. Although she had been married in November 1936, the auxiliary members of her church, Bethesda Presbyterian, surprised her with yet another shower complete with food and gifts. The young bride surely felt loved and spoiled, as most young ladies do at their nuptials. Nobody could guess that two weeks later, the same young woman would be found dead under mysterious circumstances.

The death of Lue Cree Overcash Westmoreland made headlines throughout the South, reaching as far north as Maryland, as far south to Florida, and across Alabama. The story was sensational: A young bride had disappeared from her home and her body was discovered in a well on the property. Questions abounded as to whether she had committed suicide, been murdered or died in a tragic accident.

Iredell County residents waited with bated breath for the results of the coroner’s inquest.

Lue Cree Overcash was born on April 23, 1916, in the Chambersburg Township to James and Lena May Martin Overcash. The family attended Bethesda Presbyterian Church, the nearest church of that denomination to their home. The family made their homestead on what is now Hemlock Road, just north of Ostwalt Amity. In the 1920 census, the family reported having three girls and a boy. By 1930, the family had grown by two children and remained at the homestead. This is also the year that Lue Cree began attending Troutman High School. She graduated in 1933 along with her future husband, Herman Westmoreland. Throughout the early 1930s, Herman and Lue Cree were mentioned together several times in the Amity social sections of the local newspaper. It is unclear when exactly they started “going steady,” although Herman indicated in a statement during the investigation that they had begun dating around the time they graduated.

Herman Westmoreland and Lue Cree Overcash were married on November 28, 1936. Despite being from very prominent families and being mentioned in newspapers frequently, there was no marriage announcement in any of the Statesville or Mooresville papers. The nearest mention to the wedding date of either family was a reference to Lue Cree’s father, James A. Overcash. On December 1, 1936, it was reported in the Statesville Record that he “who is confined to his room is improving.” There being only three days between this mention and his daughter’s wedding, it could be concluded that the couple made quick nuptials in order to ensure the bride’s father survived to see his daughter married.

Mr. Overcash died in January 1940 and his obituary records that he had experienced a “long period of ill health.” It is possible that whatever illness kept him in bed at the time of his daughter’s wedding had contributed to his death. If the wedding was rushed in order to include James Overcash, it could explain the lack of a formal announcement.

The local papers first reported the disappearance and subsequent death of Lue Cree on January 21, 1937. The very first mention was published by The Landmark in an article titled “Find bride’s body in well at home of father-in-law.” The title sounds slightly accusatory. With that being said, let’s examine who lived in the house and who was present at the time of Lue Cree’s untimely death.

Lue Cree and her husband, Herman Westmoreland, lived at the home of his father, R.H. Westmoreland, which was located off what is now Weathers Creek Road. Also living in the home were most of Herman’s siblings: Clyde, 17, Marie, 15, and Rachel, 10. On the night she disappeared, Lue Cree was reportedly engaged with the rest of the Westmoreland family in games before retiring to bed around 8:30 p.m. According to witnesses, her bed was unmade, indicating that she went missing before getting into bed. When her sister-in-law called for her the next morning for breakfast, she did not respond, which led to a search for her on the property. Her body was discovered in the well later that evening. She was pulled from the 30- to 40-foot well by an African American resident named Isadore Hayes.

Coroner N.D. Tomlin immediately began an inquest to determine what happened that night that caused the death of this young woman. Because Lue Cree was found head first, you could likely rule out accidental death, leaving suicide and homicide as the only two options. Tomlin made a preliminary investigation by examining the victim’s body and interviewing witnesses. The writer for the Statesville Record reported that suicide was “not regarded as probable by inquest auditors.” When the body was recovered, it was noted that there was a skull fracture at the bottom base of the victim’s head. It was determined that she was dead when she hit the water because no water was found in her lungs. Death could have resulted from a blow to the head as she was falling. However, Deputy Sherriff Daniels observed that the interior of the well did not contain any jagged or protruding rocks that would have caused the injury, which would later be concluded as the cause of death. The opening of the well was also narrow, maybe about two feet, which means she would have had to throw herself in the well with the head injury head-first, which seems implausible. The Record reported “a strong current of doubt …that she met her death as a result of suicide.”

Prior to the initial inquest, the options for what happened were:

♦ Lue Cree was depressed but hid her condition well. She snuck out in the middle of the night while her husband was away at work and threw herself head first into the well.

♦ Someone murdered Lue Cree by striking the blow to her head and then tossed her body down the well head first.

If the coroner ruled out suicide as a manner of death, that would only leave investigators with the second option to pursue.

 To be continued…

Shellie Taylor is the Local History Program Specialist at the Iredell County Public Library. She can be contacted at michelle.taylor@co.iredell.nc.us or 704-878-3090, Ext. 8801.