HERMAN GIRL FOUND DEAD

The following clipped from the Monday World Herald has reference to a young lady who for years resided at Herman:

“Miss Leola Cummings, 22, Omaha, was found dead in a gas-filled room in Sioux City, Ia. shortly after noon Sunday. Coroner W. M. Kristen said her death was suicide due ‘probably to a lover’s quarrel’.

A note left on her table and addressed to Cecil Long, 2017 Douglas street read: “Oh how I love you! Be good for me. I have tried my best. You have lots of good in you Please show me that you have. I’ll see you some time. Goodby.

“Always, LEOLO.”

Two other notes, both sealed, were addressed to Mrs. Blanche Knott, 1911 Lathrop street and to her mother, Mrs. David Cummings, Herman, Neb.

Miss Cummings came to Omaha from her home at Herman to take a commercial course at Omaha Municipal university. Before her course was fully completed, she accepted November 18, 1929, a stenographic position with the Nebraska Children’s Home society, which she held until May 30. A few days previous she had resigned, saying she planned to go to Chicago to be married early in June.

Mrs. J. Smitherow, 1916 Spencer street, with whom she had roomed for the past two weeks, said she left there Thursday night, saying she was going to Herman to visit her parents. Mrs. Smitherow’s daughter, Margaret, accompanied Miss Cummings to a downtown bus depot.

Saturday afternoon she rented a three room apartment in the fashionable Sydney at Sioux City. Her whereabouts in the meantime have not been learned.

Long was not at his room Sunday afternoon. Mrs. Smitherow said he and Miss Cummings had spent most of Thursday afternoon at the Smitherow home, and that Long telephoned for her Friday.

Mrs. Knott, an old friend, said Miss Cummings had told her Thursday that she was going to a show in the early evening, and would drop in for coffee and a chat afterward. However, she had heard nothing from her until told by the World Herald of her death.

W. H. Fletcher, 3520 Burt street, state superintendent of the Children’s home, said Miss Cummings was an efficient stenographer, and had sent most of her earnings other mother. Her father was marshal at Herman for many years.

Besides her parents, she is survived by a brother, Orland, and a sister, Ethel, both at Herman.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

FindaGrave #9128701