I'm breaking tradition here, but I dove into the archives and dug up this little piece that wasn't published in the campus newspaper. This article is about a terrible tragedy that is pretty much forgotten in Commerce. However, I still think that it is a significant event in our history that can not be forgotten. I wrote this in a style that mainly focuses on the Halladay's contributions and excellence at East Texas State University (at the time) rather than the scandal. Although, I still think that the ultimate event is certainly worth mentioning.
Suicide of the President's Wife
By: Chance A. Crane
On February 24, 1972, East Texas State University was jolted by the news that Elaine “Pat” Owings Halladay, former wife of ETSU President D. Whitney Halladay, was found dead in the presidential home garage. The Halladay’s were the first to move into the newly constructed President’s Home, south of the campus on Hwy. 50, on May 15, 1968.
Mrs. Halladay was discovered by the housemaid and was taken to the Commerce Medical and Surgical Hospital where attempts to revive her failed. At first, her cause of death was unknown and kept silent by Dr. Patrick Martin. According to The East Texan on March 1, 1972, it was Justice of the Peace Charles Walden that declared the official cause of death as “carbon monoxide poisoning from suicide.”
“Mrs. Halladay walked into the garage, closed the garage door and turned on the car engine,” former Texas A&M University - Commerce Archivist Dr. James Conrad said. “Everybody knew about it an hour after it happened.”
Mrs. Halladay was a prominent figure on campus and revered by many.
“[She] radiate[d] an atmosphere of enthusiasm for a not so enthusiastic university,” The Special said.
On June 22, 1970, Mrs. Halladay's husband was summoned by President Richard Nixon, along with 16 other college presidents, to Washington D.C. President Nixon sought advice from the group of college presidents about how to suppress student uprisings on college campuses.
“This was a very violent time,” Conrad said. “However, ETSU was barely impacted because most of the students on campus were fairly conservative.”
Conrad said that it was this trip to D.C. that possibly led to Mrs. Halladay to commit suicide two years later.
“It is said that it was in Washington D.C. where President Halladay developed a relationship with another woman,” he said. “This was probably a contributing factor to the suicide.”
On January 13, 1972, one month before the suicide, the Halladays divorced. After Mrs. Halladay’s suicide, President Halladay resigned on May 5, 1972, and became president of the new A&I University at Corpus Christi.
In Donald E. Reynolds’ book “Professor Mayo’s College: A History of East Texas State University,” it is said that the campus was stunned, “first by the death a highly regarded Pat Halladay and then the president’s resignation. The community had become sharply divided over Halladay because of his personal tragedy.”
The Halladay’s were dedicated to their work at ETSU and to the students. According to The Greenville Herald Banner, President Halladay was “a man who [was] largely responsible for the Commerce school’s emergence as a budding regional university with a growing academic repute.”
According to The Special, “the Halladays often ate in the cafeteria to ‘meet the students in their own environment.’”
“I want to meet and associate with as many students as I can,” Mrs. Halladay said. “When schools were smaller, you could know everyone personally and bring them to your home. But there’s no way we could invite over 8,000 students to the house today.”
Martha Jo McDowell, Marietta McClurg and Whitney Halladay Whitelaw, Mrs. Halladay’s daughter, said in Mrs. Halladay’s written profile that she had an interest in the welfare of animals that was “intense.”
“She could not turn away a stray, and she spent many hours trying to find homes for unwanted and abandoned animals,” they said. “A testimonial to her concern is the Commerce Humane Association, organized with funds donated…as memorial tributes upon her death.”
They also said that Mrs. Halladay had her hand in several organizations. She was a member of the Coterie Club, the Dames Club and the Methodist Church. They described her “[being] active in all of them despite a busy schedule as official hostess.”
“My life pretty well revolves around the schedule of my husband,” Mrs. Halladay said in The Special. “The University always comes first, and that doesn’t leave time for much else.”
Mrs. Halladay enjoyed being at ETSU.
“We aren’t searching for a larger or better school, because we think we have found it.”
On the day before President Halladay resigned, those who loved Mrs. Halladay paid a final tribute in
The Commerce Journal.
“Many share my opinion that today she is where the glory of her own goodness will be revealed in her,” the paid advertisement said.
Showing posts with label Press Release. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Press Release. Show all posts
Monday, January 24, 2011
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Press Release - Paranormal Investigation
I still remember it like yesterday when the "firestorm" hit Texas A&M University - Commerce. I remember it because I caused it...
It all started when I innocently participated in a paranormal investigation of the Hall of Languages in Commerce, TX with my colleague Allyson Smith. The investigation was conducted by Chad Miller and his organization called Paranormal Research and Investigations of North Texas (PRINT).
Well, when the news broke in our campus newspaper (The East Texan) of PRINT's adventure in the Hall of Languages...the crap hit the fan (I'm being nice here). Firstly, Lt. Jason Bone of the University Police Department (UPD) claimed that the police officers provided were there for security purposes only and did not participate. He even said that the officers did not witness any of the events described in the article. Hmmmmm...I really don't recall Bone being there, and there was audio recordings of a police officer participating. Secondly, many students who had class in the Hall of Languages on a regular basis (and faculty members) had sooooo many nice things to say. They all made a mountain out of a molehill, and they just added fuel to the little story.
To be perfectly honest...I laughed about it and enjoyed seeing the article go around in mass circulation on the social media. It's just sad that this was one of the controversial pieces in my career. Very sad indeed...
Oh well...here it is once more in the spirit of Halloween!
Paranormal Team Takes to Hall of Languages
By: Chance Crane
Nine Paranormal Research and Investigations of North Texas (PRINT) investigators conducted an overnight investigation of the Hall of Languages on Saturday, April 24.
The investigators were locked in from 9 p.m.-5 a.m. to see if reports of a spirit or spirits allegedly haunting the building were true.
"The Hall of Languages was the epitome of all that is evil," PRINT co-founder Chad Miller said.
The second floor experienced little to no activity, while the third floor was the highlight of the night. Reports from University Police Department officers said that the third floor sitting area did used to exist. There use to be a rotunda above the sitting area's current location and the square space was open all the way to the first floor. The central focus of the activity was near the sitting area.
"I believe this area is the key to all of it," Miller said. "It feels like this sitting area has its own atmosphere. When you walk into it, it is muggy and you feel top-heavy."
Nine group members, two press members and two university police officers participated in the investigation. The group members were separated into smaller teams and exchanged posts periodically throughout the night. As each group cycled, different activities began to occur. The first group reported a strange happening on the third floor.
"We could see the shadows of people walking down the hall and going into the classrooms," PRINT co-founder Shahnez Ragosino said. "There was a lot of activity."
During the first investigation, Ragosino felt as if someone was following her. Her frightened reaction, along with the echoing voice of a woman, was caught on tape.
"There are only three women in our group tonight," Miller said. "All of them are accounted for. I have no idea who that woman is talking in the background."
Another recording caught the sound of a phonograph playing in the background. These sounds were not audible to the normal human ear. However, a chair being dragged across the floor in a classroom was heard down the third floor hallway. Matthew Key, a reserve, went to investigate.
"I saw a pair of legs walking away," Key said. "I also felt a cold spot that moved down the hallway, and then it just disappeared."
Efforts to prompt the ghost to show itself or speak through one of the investigator's electronic devices drew a visible response in the form of contrails, and white and black masses.
However, after hours of little activity on the third floor, the group decided to pack and leave. Everyone was downstairs when a series of demonic-like screams sounded from the third floor, followed by pounding and banging on the walls and floor.
"We thought it was a car squealing by at first," investigator Brad Allison said. "However, no one outside heard anything. The noise came from inside above us and it was so loud that it could be heard throughout the entire building."
The group rushed upstairs and the once-silent electronic device lit up. It lasted a few seconds and stopped.
However, the activity did not stop. Everyone patrolling the hallways reported hearing heavy breathing and seeing a strange light as bright as a flashlight radiating from the other end of the hallway. This was all before a full-body apparition finally appeared between Ragosino and lead investigator D.J. Eichelman for a few seconds.
It wasn't until the next day that Eichelman replayed more audio and heard more strange noises.
"I ran all my tests and the ‘voices' are far from being in the human range and I believe to be residual," he said. "It sounds like a church choir or monks chanting."
Overall, PRINT found the Hall of Languages worth the hype.
"It did not disappoint at all," Miller said. "We would love to come back if they will have us. When the press and the police experience everything with you, it just validates what you're trying to accomplish. They'll be talking about this place for years to come."
PS: I heard those audio recordings and I'll just say they creeped the crap out of me!
It all started when I innocently participated in a paranormal investigation of the Hall of Languages in Commerce, TX with my colleague Allyson Smith. The investigation was conducted by Chad Miller and his organization called Paranormal Research and Investigations of North Texas (PRINT).
Well, when the news broke in our campus newspaper (The East Texan) of PRINT's adventure in the Hall of Languages...the crap hit the fan (I'm being nice here). Firstly, Lt. Jason Bone of the University Police Department (UPD) claimed that the police officers provided were there for security purposes only and did not participate. He even said that the officers did not witness any of the events described in the article. Hmmmmm...I really don't recall Bone being there, and there was audio recordings of a police officer participating. Secondly, many students who had class in the Hall of Languages on a regular basis (and faculty members) had sooooo many nice things to say. They all made a mountain out of a molehill, and they just added fuel to the little story.
To be perfectly honest...I laughed about it and enjoyed seeing the article go around in mass circulation on the social media. It's just sad that this was one of the controversial pieces in my career. Very sad indeed...
Oh well...here it is once more in the spirit of Halloween!
Paranormal Team Takes to Hall of Languages
By: Chance Crane
Nine Paranormal Research and Investigations of North Texas (PRINT) investigators conducted an overnight investigation of the Hall of Languages on Saturday, April 24.
The investigators were locked in from 9 p.m.-5 a.m. to see if reports of a spirit or spirits allegedly haunting the building were true.
"The Hall of Languages was the epitome of all that is evil," PRINT co-founder Chad Miller said.
The second floor experienced little to no activity, while the third floor was the highlight of the night. Reports from University Police Department officers said that the third floor sitting area did used to exist. There use to be a rotunda above the sitting area's current location and the square space was open all the way to the first floor. The central focus of the activity was near the sitting area.
"I believe this area is the key to all of it," Miller said. "It feels like this sitting area has its own atmosphere. When you walk into it, it is muggy and you feel top-heavy."
Nine group members, two press members and two university police officers participated in the investigation. The group members were separated into smaller teams and exchanged posts periodically throughout the night. As each group cycled, different activities began to occur. The first group reported a strange happening on the third floor.
"We could see the shadows of people walking down the hall and going into the classrooms," PRINT co-founder Shahnez Ragosino said. "There was a lot of activity."
During the first investigation, Ragosino felt as if someone was following her. Her frightened reaction, along with the echoing voice of a woman, was caught on tape.
"There are only three women in our group tonight," Miller said. "All of them are accounted for. I have no idea who that woman is talking in the background."
Another recording caught the sound of a phonograph playing in the background. These sounds were not audible to the normal human ear. However, a chair being dragged across the floor in a classroom was heard down the third floor hallway. Matthew Key, a reserve, went to investigate.
"I saw a pair of legs walking away," Key said. "I also felt a cold spot that moved down the hallway, and then it just disappeared."
Efforts to prompt the ghost to show itself or speak through one of the investigator's electronic devices drew a visible response in the form of contrails, and white and black masses.
However, after hours of little activity on the third floor, the group decided to pack and leave. Everyone was downstairs when a series of demonic-like screams sounded from the third floor, followed by pounding and banging on the walls and floor.
"We thought it was a car squealing by at first," investigator Brad Allison said. "However, no one outside heard anything. The noise came from inside above us and it was so loud that it could be heard throughout the entire building."
The group rushed upstairs and the once-silent electronic device lit up. It lasted a few seconds and stopped.
However, the activity did not stop. Everyone patrolling the hallways reported hearing heavy breathing and seeing a strange light as bright as a flashlight radiating from the other end of the hallway. This was all before a full-body apparition finally appeared between Ragosino and lead investigator D.J. Eichelman for a few seconds.
It wasn't until the next day that Eichelman replayed more audio and heard more strange noises.
"I ran all my tests and the ‘voices' are far from being in the human range and I believe to be residual," he said. "It sounds like a church choir or monks chanting."
Overall, PRINT found the Hall of Languages worth the hype.
"It did not disappoint at all," Miller said. "We would love to come back if they will have us. When the press and the police experience everything with you, it just validates what you're trying to accomplish. They'll be talking about this place for years to come."
PS: I heard those audio recordings and I'll just say they creeped the crap out of me!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Press Release: Velma Patterson – Mommie Dearest or Mother Superior?
Love...sex...death (or murder?). Here is an article that I am particularly proud of. So I decided to share it with you. It was published in The East Texan last semester (Spring 2010). The title of this piece is what I originally suggested, but the editor changed it to something more simple. I obtained all of these sources when I was conducting research to find information about paranormal activity on the Texas A&M University - Commerce campus and the surrounding area. That is a whole different story in itself...Ha!
Velma Patterson – Mommie Dearest or Mother Superior?
By: Chance A. Crane
In 1936, Velma Patterson brought a national scandal to Commerce, Texas when she faced trial for the suspicious deaths of her two young daughters.
Patterson, age 34 at the time, was accused of murder when both of her daughters from another marriage, Billie Fae and Dorothy Leon McCasland, ages 11 and 12 respectively, had enough traces of arsenic in their bodies to kill an adult.
“Billie was the first one to die,” Texas A&M University - Commerce Archivist Dr. James Conrad said. “No one suspected anything out of the usual because she had supposedly been suffering from the intestinal flu. It wasn’t until Dorothy died forty days later that the sheriff became suspicious.”
In order to find out if the two girls deaths involved more than just the flu, their bodies were dug up from their graves. They were then sent to Dr. Landon C. Moore of Dallas for inspection. Later that week, Moore reported to the Hunt County grand jury that he found poison in both of their internal organs.
“Velma was then arrested,” Conrad said. “Her trial took place in Greenville with twelve farmers serving on the jury.”
Patterson had been in trouble once before for bootlegging and had quite a reputation. In Conrad’s book “Blacklands: Historical Sketches of Hunt County, Texas,” he describes that Patterson was known to frequent a bar known for its “shady pleasures.” She, having previously been married three times, now had a romantic interest in a “cowboy Romeo.”
“Many people suspected that Velma poisoned her two daughters so she could marry her cattleman lover from Lone Oak,” Conrad said.
An article from The Spartanburg Herald-Journal from South Carolina provided court testimony from Alice Cooper, Patterson’s former maid, that revealed that Patterson was seeing another man.
According to Cooper, Patterson was “deeply in love” with the cattleman and wanted to marry him “if it wasn’t for the children.” Cooper claimed that Patterson warned her after Dorothy’s death to “keep your little mouth shut about me buying the poison.” Cooper also said that Patterson told the druggist that she wanted the poison “to kill rats.”
A total of 200 witnesses were called to the stand to testify for or against Patterson. One of those testifying against her was ex-husband W.W. (Dester) McCasland. He and Patterson both gave medicine to their child Dorothy, but McCasland knew that something was wrong.
According to information gathered by The Dallas Morning News:
“[Dorothy] begged not to be given any more of her mother’s ‘rest medicine,’” McCasland said. “Dorothy begged for a doctor and I asked Mrs. Patterson if we had better call one, but she said ‘no—wait until morning.’”
McCasland remembers the last few words his daughter said to him before her death.
“I know I am going to die and I don’t care,” she had said. “Little Billie Fae is gone.”
After their second daughter’s death, McCasland testified that Patterson would ask him to take her to the cemetery.
“She would walk up to the grave and say: ‘Well, they haven’t dug her up yet,’” he said. “She would ask if I thingh [sic] she would collect the insurance. She said she was broke.”
However, other reports indicated that McCasland had spoken with L.W. Williams, Patterson’s father, and confessed that he had been the one that bought the rat poison and believed his ex-wife was not guilty. As the trial continued, Patterson never went to the stand to testify for herself and the death penalty was being sought by the State.
But in the end, the District Court jury acquitted an emotional Patterson. She was so joyful that she gave a shout and “she ran to the jury box and shook hands with the jurors.”
Her acquittal still did not exonerate Patterson in the public’s eye.
“Everyone thought Velma was guilty,” Conrad said.
Patterson denied in court that she had anything to do with her children’s deaths.
“I loved my babies,” she said. “Why should I kill them? I sent them to Sunday school, gave one of them music lessons and the other expression instruction. Now they say I killed them. I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it.”
Velma Patterson – Mommie Dearest or Mother Superior?
By: Chance A. Crane
In 1936, Velma Patterson brought a national scandal to Commerce, Texas when she faced trial for the suspicious deaths of her two young daughters.
Patterson, age 34 at the time, was accused of murder when both of her daughters from another marriage, Billie Fae and Dorothy Leon McCasland, ages 11 and 12 respectively, had enough traces of arsenic in their bodies to kill an adult.
“Billie was the first one to die,” Texas A&M University - Commerce Archivist Dr. James Conrad said. “No one suspected anything out of the usual because she had supposedly been suffering from the intestinal flu. It wasn’t until Dorothy died forty days later that the sheriff became suspicious.”
In order to find out if the two girls deaths involved more than just the flu, their bodies were dug up from their graves. They were then sent to Dr. Landon C. Moore of Dallas for inspection. Later that week, Moore reported to the Hunt County grand jury that he found poison in both of their internal organs.
“Velma was then arrested,” Conrad said. “Her trial took place in Greenville with twelve farmers serving on the jury.”
Patterson had been in trouble once before for bootlegging and had quite a reputation. In Conrad’s book “Blacklands: Historical Sketches of Hunt County, Texas,” he describes that Patterson was known to frequent a bar known for its “shady pleasures.” She, having previously been married three times, now had a romantic interest in a “cowboy Romeo.”
“Many people suspected that Velma poisoned her two daughters so she could marry her cattleman lover from Lone Oak,” Conrad said.
An article from The Spartanburg Herald-Journal from South Carolina provided court testimony from Alice Cooper, Patterson’s former maid, that revealed that Patterson was seeing another man.
According to Cooper, Patterson was “deeply in love” with the cattleman and wanted to marry him “if it wasn’t for the children.” Cooper claimed that Patterson warned her after Dorothy’s death to “keep your little mouth shut about me buying the poison.” Cooper also said that Patterson told the druggist that she wanted the poison “to kill rats.”
A total of 200 witnesses were called to the stand to testify for or against Patterson. One of those testifying against her was ex-husband W.W. (Dester) McCasland. He and Patterson both gave medicine to their child Dorothy, but McCasland knew that something was wrong.
According to information gathered by The Dallas Morning News:
“[Dorothy] begged not to be given any more of her mother’s ‘rest medicine,’” McCasland said. “Dorothy begged for a doctor and I asked Mrs. Patterson if we had better call one, but she said ‘no—wait until morning.’”
McCasland remembers the last few words his daughter said to him before her death.
“I know I am going to die and I don’t care,” she had said. “Little Billie Fae is gone.”
After their second daughter’s death, McCasland testified that Patterson would ask him to take her to the cemetery.
“She would walk up to the grave and say: ‘Well, they haven’t dug her up yet,’” he said. “She would ask if I thingh [sic] she would collect the insurance. She said she was broke.”
However, other reports indicated that McCasland had spoken with L.W. Williams, Patterson’s father, and confessed that he had been the one that bought the rat poison and believed his ex-wife was not guilty. As the trial continued, Patterson never went to the stand to testify for herself and the death penalty was being sought by the State.
But in the end, the District Court jury acquitted an emotional Patterson. She was so joyful that she gave a shout and “she ran to the jury box and shook hands with the jurors.”
Her acquittal still did not exonerate Patterson in the public’s eye.
“Everyone thought Velma was guilty,” Conrad said.
Patterson denied in court that she had anything to do with her children’s deaths.
“I loved my babies,” she said. “Why should I kill them? I sent them to Sunday school, gave one of them music lessons and the other expression instruction. Now they say I killed them. I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it.”
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