Obituary - Lotta Lea

SORROWING FRIENDS.
Pay Their Respect to Miss Lotta Lea, at Rayville.
Rayville, La., Feb. 26th, '02.

This town and the town of Winnsboro, La., the home of Miss Lotta Lea has been cast into a gloom of sadness at her untimely death which occurred on yesterday at Ruston, La., while in attendance on the Industrial school, with pneumonia. Her remains arrived here on the East Band [sic bound] V.S. & P. last evening in charge of her father Hon. H. J. Lea, Clerk of the Court of Franklin parish and Prof. J. B. Aswell president of the industrial school.

After remaining at the home of Judge C.J. Ellis where many friends paid their last sad tributes of respect, the body will be taken this evening on the south bound N.O. & N.W.R.R. to Winnsboro, for interment tomorrow.

Many sympathizing friends of the family of the deceased came to meet the funeral party here this morning on the north bound N. O. & N. W. R. R. from the home of the deceased who was very popular and held in the highest esteem for her many admirable qualities; for although she was only eighteen years old, by her quiet, modest ladylike [C]hristian department in social and church circles she had won many sincere friends and devoted admirers who speak in the most favorable terms of her charming personality and many accomplishments. She was a consistent member of the Baptist church and gave up life with a [C] hristian hope of the joy beyond the grave in "that house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens."

Prof. J. B. Aswell is with the many friends of the bereaved family deeply affected and will go to Winnsboro this evening to officiate in the last sad rites to his esteemed deceased pupil. He is accompanied with Sheriff W. H. Adams, Mrs. L. A. Thompson, wife of the district attorney; Mrs. C. L. Berry, Horace Wiggers, Mr. Lowenthal, Mrs. Sallie Earle, Miss Effie Scott and other friends of the deceased.

About 500 of the students of the Industrial school accompanied the remains to the train and a large number of Rayville people paid their last tribute by accompanying the funeral cortege to the train here at 2:45 p.m.

Mrs. Anna Chambers and her husband also were in the party. The former is a sister of the deceased.

Contributor's Additions

Carlottie Lea is buried in the Old Winnsboro Cemetery in Franklin Parish. Her dates in the cemetery index are: January 25, 1884 - February 25, 1900. The year of death does not correspond to the date of the article. This is possibly a transcription error. Her father Henry J. Lea is buried nearby.

Obituaries from the Scrapbook of Belle Mills. This scrapbook is now in possession of Mrs. Frankie Mills, the widow of Mr. George Mills, who was the nephew of Belle Mills. It is to Mrs. Frankie that I owe thanks for these treasures!

Most of these obituaries (which are clippings) have no dates on them. They were probably taken from the Monroe News, one of the parent newspapers of the modern News-Star or the Progressive Age, a Ruston paper. Most date from the 1890-1910 years, which are now lost to time. These newspapers were never preserved. That makes these obituaries even more valuable to researchers. Whenever possible, dates and information clarifying the obituaries have been taken from cemetery indexes at the Ouachita Parish Public Library. This was the only Franklin Parish connected death in the collection.

Contributed 2021 Sep 27 by Lora Peppers loradpeppers@hotmail.com