Sources |
- [S77] Rawlings Funeral Home Records 1911-1995, Larry D. Fox, (Smoky Mountain Historical Society), 18 Apr 1962.
Lindsay, Homer 65 Apr 18, 1962 buried Webbs Creek Cem
- [S73] Rawlings Funeral Home, Book 2, 18 Apr 1962.
Lindsey, Homer Nov 11, 1896 Sevier Co. April 18, 1962
Father: Lindsey, William Thomas
Mother: Huskey, Margaret
Cemetery: Webb Creek Methodist
Brothers: Fletcher
Sisters: Mrs. Lillie Henry, Mrs. Harriet Rice, Mrs. Maude Shults, Mrs. Myrtle Ramsey
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 12 Mar 2012.
Upland Chronicles: Fortune teller may have predicted Homer Lindsey's death
Homer Lindsey was a student at Pittman Center High School in this photo.
By CARROLL McMAHAN
The palm reader looked astonished as she began to read Homer Lindsey’s palm. “Your life line...” she hesitated, “has an abrupt ending; oh, this is just a game after all, don’t worry!”
Homer Lindsey left the home of the fortune teller that day and, as far as anyone knew, never gave it a second thought.
Over 30 years later, others who witnessed this bizarre episode in Russellville, Tenn. were stunned when they heard the details of Homer Lindsey’s death.
Isaac Homer Lindsey was born on Nov. 11, 1894. He was a son of William Thomas Lindsey (1867-1951) and Margaret Huskey Lindsey (1872-1951). He grew up in the Tunis Branch area of the Smoky Mountains, a place often called Lindsey Town because most of the residents’ surname was Lindsey.
Growing up in the isolated mountains, an education beyond grade school was not available to Homer. In 1917, along with 145 other young men from Sevier County, Homer was drafted by the Army to serve in World War I.
A few years after the war ended, the new Pittman Community Center School was built by the Methodist Board of Home Missions. Although Homer was several years older than the other students and was still feeling the effects of being shell-shocked in France during the war, he enrolled in the new school.
He began taking piano lessons from Anne Handlon and they developed a unique teacher-student relationship. By then Homer was 28 years old.
When Sunday school lessons were started at Black Gum Gap, Homer began to drive up there in his Model T Ford every Sunday, just to give a ride to Miss Handlon and her fellow teachers, Eleanor Grace, Zelma Long and others.
After he graduated from high school, Homer enrolled in summer school at the University of Tennessee. Coincidentally, Homer and his friend Winfred Morris went to Knoxville the same day Anne Handlon and Docia Cate went to enroll in summer school. The teachers did not know the young men were going until they offered them a ride in Homer’s car.
Naturally, the thankful teachers accepted. While the ladies were living in a dorm on campus, Homer frequently offered to transport them anywhere they wanted to go.
It was at a luncheon party in the home of a relative of one of Anne Handlon’s roommates that Homer encountered the palm reader.
The following week after the trip to Russellville, Homer asked Miss Handlon to accompany him on a Sunday afternoon drive. This time it was just the two of them. She was surprised when Homer suddenly pulled his Model T Ford over to the side of the road and stopped.
“Is something wrong with the car?” she asked, innocently. “No, I just wanted to do this,” he replied. Taking a length of string from his pocket, he grabbed the teacher’s hand and circled her finger with it.
“Just measuring the ring finger,” he informed her, and then made a knot. He laid a hand on her knee and drew closer. “What in the world!” she exclaimed, surprised, and slid farther away on the car seat.
Homer immediately started the car and drove speechless down the road much faster than the 35 mph speed limit. He stopped in front of her dorm and came around to open the door for her.
As the shocked teacher got out of the car, Homer exclaimed “I reckon — I just reckon. Oh! You’re just too isolated.” He got in the car and drove off. Homer never married.
Returning to the familiarity of Webb’s Creek, Homer opened a grocery store on Highway 73 (today called Highway 321). He lived upstairs and operated the grocery store/gas station the rest of his life.
On Sunday, April 15, 1962, Sevier County Sheriff Ray Noland received a phone call around 10:30 p.m. informing him that Homer Lindsey had been beaten and robbed. When the sheriff arrived he found the victim surround by concerned family and friends in serious condition.
Sheriff Noland asked Homer if he could tell who assaulted him. “There was three of ’em … they got me out of bed and asked me if they could get some gas. I got my clothes on and went out and pumped them $1.23 worth of gas. They’re drivin’ a ’50 Ford,” Homer replied, struggling.
“While I was pumpin’ gas I noticed one of ’em a layin’ in the back seat wrapped up in a blanket,” he added. The sheriff remembered seeing a man wrapped in a blanket who he suspected to be suffering a hangover, in the back seat of a 1950 Ford earlier that same day during a routine car search.
Homer Lindsey was transported by ambulance to Fort Sanders Hospital in Knoxville, where he slipped into a coma and died the following Wednesday morning at 10:25 without regaining consciousness. He was 65 years old.
Investigators believed the victim was struck in the head with a lug wrench because he put up a fight when his assailants tried to rob him after he pumped the gas for them. Based on Homer’s description, Sheriff Noland arrested Carroll Dorsey, 25, Carroll Jenkins, 27, and Ervin Benson, 18, all of Cosby.
When Lindsey died, the trio was charged with first-degree aggravated murder.
Dorsey and Jenkins entered a plea of guilty to first-degree murder and were sentenced to life in prison. Benson, who turned state’s evidence, was given 2-10 years for involuntary manslaughter.
Fifty years later, the old building that was once Lindsey’s Store is still standing and used as the office for Cobbley Knob Vacation Rentals.
Several witnesses were present that day in Russellville when the palm reader abruptly stopped while foretelling Homer Lindsey’s future. Although stunned at the time, they could not have imagined that a gentleman such as Homer Lindsey would ever meet such a gruesome end.
Carroll McMahan is the special projects facilitator for the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce. The Upland Chronicles series celebrates the heritage and past of Sevier County. If you have suggestions for future topics, would like to submit a column or have comments, please contact Carroll McMahan at 453-6411 or email to cmcmahan@scoc.org; or Ron Rader at 604-9161 or email to ron@ronraderproperties.com.
- [S34] In the Shadow of the Smokies, Smoky Mountain Historical Society, (1993), 567.
Tenn Pvt 49 Inf 83rd Div
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