Dorothy Battle, five-year-old daughter of John and Pearl Battle, respected colored citizens of Goldsboro residing on North Greenleaf Street, died in a local hospital about 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon, as a result of burns sustained at the home of a neighbor in whose care she had been left by her father, a barber on North John Street, and her mother, a cook at the home of the Rev. J.M. Daniel.
According to Nicey Coley, colored, the neighbor caring for the child, she had left the house for a moment on some errand and was greatly shocked upon nearing her home to see the little girl enveloped in flames run from the house. Benny Barnes, a colored mail carrier, who reached the scene at the same time, extinguished the child’s burning clothes by wrapping his coat around her and throwing her to the ground. He received slight burns on his hands and face while so commendably aiding the unfortunate child. It is thought the little girl’s clothing caught fire by coming into close contact with a stove.
The child was carried to the Goldsboro hospital, suffering with severe burns about the face, head and body, and expired within a few hours, despite every attention by physicians and the hospital staff. The neighbor, Icey Coley, interviewed by a News representative, expressed great regret over the tragedy, declaring that she thought almost as much of the little girl as if she were her mother.
From the front page of The Goldsboro News, Tuesday morning, January 12, 1926. “Goldsboro Is the Gate City of Eastern North Carolina”
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn93064755/1926-01-12/ed-1/seq-1/
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