Nanny Lambert Killed When Theater Roof Collapsed in Washington, D.C., Jan. 31, 1922

North Carolina Lady Was in List of Dead. . . Newspaper Correspondent Pictures Scene of Theatre Disaster in Washington, D.C.

The following extract from a letter of January 29th of Theodore Tiller, Washington correspondent of the Greensboro Daily News, pictures the awful scene of the Knickerbocker Theatre tragedy, giving facts about Miss Lambeth, the victim from North Carolina. “A North Carolina girl, who intended to leave the government service and return home, was one of the hundred or more victims of the Knickerbocker theatre catastrophe of last night. Late today, under the debris in the theater, whose roof caved in because of its deep covering of snow, the body of Miss Nannie Lambert of Asheboro was found.

Miss Lambert for the past 5 years had been a government clerk in Washington. She intended resigning her position in a few weeks. Before coming to Washington, she was employed in the law and newspaper office of William C. Hammer, now a member of Congress. She was a graduate of the North Carolina College for Women at Greensboro, made an unusually creditable rating in her examination for a government position, and was regarded as one of the brightest graduates of the state college.

This writer will tell blow what he saw last night and today at the Knickerbocker theater. The death of this North Carolinian but emphasizes how widespread is the mourning in which Washington came today, for men and women from all parts of this country were in that unfortunate lot that went to the Knickerbocker last evening.

Representative Hammer said tonight that the body of Miss Lambert could not reach her home for two or three days. All Washington undertakers are so hard pressed by the theater tragedy that bodies cannot be prepared earlier.

Tonight they were still digging through the ruins of the Knickerbocker theater but at a late hour the only North Carolina who seems to have been killed is Miss Lambert.

“Miss Lambert,” said Representative Hammer tonight, “was one of the finest girls North Carolina ever produced. Before she came here she was in my office for quite a time; she worked there a part of her vacation periods, while attending college at Greensboro and greatly aided me in publishing my newspaper. She was a cousin of H.M. Robins, who is known throughout North Carolina, and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lambert of Asheboro, whom I advised today of her untimely end. Her mother was the sister of the late Montague Robins, known as one of the greatest lawyers of our state.”

Miss Lambert went to the Knickerbocker last night with Archie B. Bell, who boarded at the same address as that of the North Carolina girl. Both she and Mr. Bell were on the list of the dead today. There was another young man in the party whose fate so far is unknown.

And now one comes to the general tragedy of this calamity which has stunned all Washington and the country.”

From The Smithfield Herald, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1922. Heavy snowfall caused the roof to collapse in on patrons of The Knickerbocker Theater in Washington, D.C., Saturday, while they were watching the comedy, “Get Rich Quick Wallingford.”