Mrs. Ruby Weeks, 19-year-old daughter of Uriah Tart and the five-weeks bride of Mr. Jimmy Weeks, was killed by the accidental discharge of a shot gun in the home of her father-in-law, J.H. Weeks, near Goshen Church at 7 o’clock Wednesday morning.
The gun was discharged while being examined by James Weeks, a 16-year-old school boy, son of Bascom Weeks and nephew of Jimmy Weeks. The shot entered the right side of the mouth, lodging in the brain. Death was immediate. Sheriff A.A. Jernigan was notified by E.N. Lindsey, a neighbor, who called Dr. J.S. Brewer, coroner, of Roseboro. Dr. Brewer went to the scene of the tragedy, examined the various witnesses and pronounced death as due to accident.
Tragedy Described
There were four in the room at the time the shell exploded. They were Mrs. Weeks, her husband, Jimmy Weeks; James Weeks, who held the gun; and his elder brother, Lacy Weeks, 17 years old. Thelma Weeks, 12-year-old sister of Jimmy Weeks, was standing just outside the door, on the porch.
Dr. Brewer examined Jimmy Weeks, Lacy Weeks and little Thelma Weeks, as to the details of the tragedy. He did not examine James Weeks, because of his nervous condition—he being in a state of collapse and in charge of the family physician, Dr. R.B. Wilson of Newton Grove. Jimmy Weeks and Lacy Weeks, examined separately, gave an identical account of the tragedy.
“We were in the bedroom and I was brushing my hair,” said the husband, “and James was looking at the gun—a single barrel 12-gauge gun for which I had traded. He had picked it up from near the bureau. Lacy was standing near, but several feet away. James was standing with his side to the door and the gun in a position one might hold a gun while looking at it. Presently my wife entered the room from the porch and called me to come to breakfast. At that instant, I heard the shot. My wife fell. She did not move again.”
Examined Gun
Lacy’s statement corroborated, in every detail, the statement of his uncle—the young girl’s husband. He said that he and his brother were en route to school and stopped, as a frequent custom, at the home of their grandfather to deliver some message. The brother saw the gun and with a natural curiosity was looking at it. He did not recall seeing him pull the trigger back. None thought the gun was loaded.
Within a short time after the shooting, scores of neighbors from the Goshen and Sutton districts assembled at the home to give whatever aid was possible. Mr. and Mrs. Uriah Tart, parents of the dead girl, were notified and hurried to the Weeks home. Mrs. Tart was unable to withstand the shock and fainted. She was given temporary treatment by Dr. Brewer, pending the return of Dr. Wilson. The father, in discussing the occurrence with Dr. Brewer stated that he and all the others realized that it was an unhappy accident—his daughter and the boy, he said, were particularly fond of each other.
Body Taken Home
The body was taken to the Tart home, in the Shady Grove vicinity, only a few miles away, Wednesday night and prepared for burial. Funeral services will be conducted at the home at 2:30 Thursday afternoon by Rev. J.W. Underwood, pastor of the Newton Grove Methodist Church. Interment will follow in the family graveyard.
Fate has been peculiarly unkind to the Weeks home during the last 13 months. Wednesday’s tragedy was the fourth death in the family within that period. Mrs. Betsy Roberts, a sister of Jim Henry Weeks, died during the summer of last year; a short time later, Mrs. W.I. Godwin, a daughter, died in a Goldsboro hospital; and a few months ago, his wife was called by death. And now, his son’s wife, the victim of the accidental gunshot.
“And this last is a fearful tragedy,” said one of the score or more neighbors who had assembled at the home Wednesday morning. “She came here a bride only five weeks ago and had brightened a home that had known nothing but death for the last year. Apparently, she was the sunshine that was rifting the dark gloomy dismal clouds. And now this. It is extremely saddening.”
From the front page of the Sampson Independent, Clinton, N.C., Oct. 8, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn91068086/1925-10-08/ed-1/seq-1/
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