MISS JEANETTE COFFEY

COFFEY, KLINE, DELK

Posted By: Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert (email)
Date: 1/10/2002 at 16:46:50

Leon Reporter
June 30, l895

MISS JEANETTE COFFEY, of Weldon, a student at
the Normal Institute,
committed suicide at the residence of W.R.
KLINE in this city Thursday
night by taking a large quantity of morphine,
chloroform and opium.

The deceased was an exceptionally bright
girl, and would have been l6
years old next August. She graduated with
honors from the Weldon High
School last year, and was preparing herself
to teach. Her case is an
exceedingly sad one. She was the daughter of
MRS. JOSEPH COFFEY and
from what we learn, her whole life had been a
sorrowful one, although
through no fault of hers, and finally she
became despondent and took her
own life.

She came to Leon Monday and paid her board in
advance to MRS. KLINE.
All week she seemed in high spirits until
Thursday when she came home
from Normal and said she could not study, and
wished she could go home.
She ate no supper that evening assigning as a
reason that she had been
swinging in the hammock and it made her sick.
She wrote three letters
that afternoon, one to her brother, one to a
lady in Des Moines, and the
other to JAMES DELK who was at Melrose. What
the contents of those
letters are we do not know.

Just before retiring the girl went out on the
porch to get a drink, and
it is supposed she took the poison at the
time. She slept with MISS ADA
MURRY, who did not notice anything wrong when
she went to sleep, but was
awakened about half past one o'clock by her
moaning. The household was
at once aroused, and Drs. Brown and Layton
summoned. But nothing could
restore her to consciousness, and she died
about three o'clock.

An effort has been made by some to couple the
name of JAMES DELK with
the girl in an unenviable light, and the
daily papers of Saturday
contained a dispatch from Leon, assigning as
the reason for killing
herself that she was infatuated with MR. DELK
and had repeatedly asked
him to marry her, and his refusal caused her
to commit the rash act.

There is absolutely no truth in such
statements. MR. DELK became
acquainted with her only about a month ago.
He had written her two
letters and had received one from her. They
were only friends and
acquaintances, nothing more. MISS COFFEY
received a letter from him the
day she killed herself, but it has been read,
and there is not a word in
it that would indicate they were more than
friends.

An inquest was held Friday by Coroner Layton
and after hearing the
testimony, and viewing the body, the jury
composed of W.H. ALBAUGH, J.A.
HAWKINS and T.S. ARNOLD, returned a verdict
that the deceased came to
her death from the effects of poison taken by
herself with suicidal
intent. The remains were taken to Weldon
Friday evening, and the
funeral conducted on Saturday by Rev. Hosier.
We learn it was the
largest funeral ever in Weldon.

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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
January l0, 2002