This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Russell, Bell Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/mAB.2ACE/2413.2.1 Message Board Post: Suicide at Hopkinsville A most shocking tragedy was enacted last Sunday evening at Hopkinsville, at 6:15 o'clock, in which Miss Cammie RUSSELL, the beautiful and accomplished sixteen-year-old daughter of J.D. RUSSELL, a wealthy citizen of that place, and Vice-President of the Planters Bank, took her own life. Fifteen minutes before the awful deed was committed, Miss RUSSELL stood at the front gate of her lovely home, gaily chatting with a party of young friends, the very picture of health, youth and beauty. Still in the best of spirits, happy and jolly as she was wont to be, she left her friends at the gate, talking to them as she walked backward towards the house, a hundred or more feet away. She answered the telephone and then went upstairs to her room while the rest of the family were called into supper about that time. As she failed to put in an appearance at the supper table, her mother sent the cook out to call her, about the time the meal was finished. Not finding her in the house, she went to the gate and called to the neighbors to know if Miss Cammie was there. As she was not found, her father left the table and began to search for her, not dreaming that a tragedy had occurred. Going into the garden, some fifty feet beyond the house, under a peach tree, he found he! r dead body. She was lying partly on her side and partly on her face, with her right hand under the wounded side of her face, dead, with her father's pistol lying by her with one chamber empty. The horrified father took her tenderly in his arms, bore her into the house and placed her on a bed. Drs. Darwin BELL and RUSSELL were at once summoned, and an examination soon revealed the fact that the wound was in the right temple, under the fluff of her beautiful brown hair, and the cruel ball had evidently done its work instantly. Miss RUSSELL was attired in a new and handsome dress, and wore two or three rings on her hand, one of them an elegant diamond given her by her mother on her birthday, two days before. She was the youngest of a family of four children, and was of a bright, happy disposition, with a pleasant smile and a jolly word for all her friends, and a universal favorite wherever known. Surrounded by the luxuries and comforts of a happy home, with friends and admirers without number, kind and indulgent parents, loving brothers and sisters, with nothing but brightness in her future, it seems incredible that she could have taken her own life. The fact of suicide however, was clearly established out Monday noon, by the finding of two letters which threw a flood of light on the affair. Both letters were written to a young man and contained threats of suicide. The first was written October 6th, in which she declared her intention to "fill a suicide's grave." This letter was never delivered. The second letter was evidently written a few moments before the act. It was short, and referred to the former letter to explain the motive. They were written in a firm hand, and signed "Cammie Brown RUSSELL." The family is one of the most prominent in Hopkinsville, and the affair happened in the most fashionable residence portion of the city. The funeral was held at the Ninth Street Presbyterian Church, at 2:30 o'clock, Tuesday afternoon. (Source: Earlington Bee, Thur., Oct. 17, 1895)