Saturday, May 23, 2026

Anna Thomas Lea, Recovering from Breakdown, Commits Suicide May 23, 1926

Rockingham Woman Fatally Shoots Self. . . Mrs. Anna Thomas Lea Had Suffered Breakdown While in United States Employ

Rockingham, May 23—This community was shocked this morning by the death of Mrs. Anna Thomas Lea, which occurred at 11:30 following self-inflicted wounds sustained two hours earlier. Mrs. Lea had been in poor health for some weeks, having suffered a nervous breakdown in Washington where she was in government employ. She came home two months ago and spent a month in the Hamlet Hospital in the hope of rebuilding her nervous condition. Last night she attended a Chautauqua play with some friends, and at breakfast with her father this morning gave no indication of the impending act. She did the small chores in the home this morning before breakfast, and showed her solicitude for her father’s comfort by asking if she might prepare his bath. Immediately after breakfast she went into one of the rear bedrooms, and at once there rang out two pistol shots in rapid succession. She was found with a bullet in her temple, and her life blood fast ebbing away.

The funeral will be held Monday afternoon at 4 o’clock from the residence.

Mrs. Lea, who was 33 years old, was the widow of Major Robert Emmett Lea, who died at Camp Pike several years ago.

From the front page of the Salisbury Daily Tribune, May 24, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-05-24/ed-1/seq-1/

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