Thirteen Mississippi Ghosts and Jeffrey: Commemorative Edition

A deluxe, commemorative edition of famed southern author and folklorist Kathryn Tucker Windham’s introduction to Mississippi’s thirteen most famous haunted houses and ghostly visitations For as long as Mississippi has existed (and then some), flocks of phantoms have haunted the mortal inhabitants of the Magnolia State. In Thirteen Mississippi Ghosts and Jeffrey, best-selling folklorist Kathryn Tucker Windham, along with her trusty spectral companion Jeffrey, introduces thirteen of the state’s most famous ghost stories.   Although stories about Mississippi’s spirits seemingly outnumber the ghosts themselves, Windham observes that “Southern ghost tales are disappearing because people no longer sit around on the porch on summer nights and tell stories. The old folks who grew up with these stories are dying now, and the stories are dying with them.”   Fortunately for us, Windham was a writer dedicated to preserving these tales in print. The veteran author spent many years tracking down these stories and chronicling the best ones. From the ghost of Mrs. McEwen still wearing her beloved cameo pin and keeping a watchful eye over Featherston Place, her home in Holly Springs, where, she swore, she would stay forever, to the ghostly visage fixed permanently on the bedroom window pane of Catherine McGehee, who searched the horizon ardently for her unrequited love to come to her as promised at Cold Spring Plantation in Pinckneyville, Windham’s stories cover the breadth and depth of Mississippi—at times more moonlight than magnolia.   An enduring classic, this commemorative edition restores Thirteen Mississippi Ghosts and Jeffrey to the ghastly grandeur of its original 1974 edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

13 Mississippi Ghosts and JeffreyCommemorative EditionBy Kathryn Tucker Windham, H. R. RussellThe University of Alabama PressCopyright © 2015 the University of Alabama PressAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-0-8173-1886-4ContentsThe Faithful Caretaker at Pontotoc, "I'll Wait Forever!", Flag Stop, Where the Witches Danced, Out of the Devil's Den, The Long, Long Visit, The General, The Rebellious Miss Archer, The Lovely Afternoon, Little Girl Lost, Nellie, The Cameo, That Black Cat, Afterword to the Commemorative Edition Dilcy Windham Hilley and Ben Windham, CHAPTER 1The Faithful Caretaker At PontotocThe hunt had been disappointing. Though the dogs had treed once, heralding their accomplishment to the countryside, the coon had escaped. So around midnight, after a cold rain had begun to fall, the hunters left the woods and took a short cut across a pasture to the road where they had parked their pick-up.They were about halfway across the open pasture when they first saw the lantern bobbing toward them. At first they thought one of their companions had got separated from them in the dark and was trying to catch up. They stopped walking and called, "Yoo-hoo! Yoo-hoo! Come on! We're waiting! Come on!"But though they shouted several times, there was no answer. The light kept moving closer, but its carrier was strangely silent.Suddenly the men were uneasy, filled with foreboding."Hey," one of the group whispered (he later was not sure why he had whispered instead of speaking right out). "Hey — That's not one of us. We're all here — nobody's missing. Let's get out of here!"They ran through the dark to their waiting pick-up, tumbled in, and sped toward Pontotoc.Once they had reached the safety of the town, their fears subsided, but even the brightly-lighted streets and the familiar buildings did not entirely erase their feelings of uneasiness, of strangeness."What was it we saw?" they asked each other. "What kind of lantern was it?" And none of them had a satisfactory answer."It wasn't fox fire — not a jack-o-lantern — I've seen that glowing in the woods plenty of times. It wasn't that. I know it wasn't fox fire," one of the men asserted."It was a lantern for sure. But it wasn't right somehow. Something wasn't natural....""The way it moved was scary. Made me think it was threatening me in some way," his companion interrupted. "Sounds stupid to say I was afraid of a lantern — but I was."Next morning when the hunters met for coffee at a Pontotoc cafe, their experiences of the night before still filled their thoughts and conversation. They re-told the events, much to the amusement of other coffee-drinkers who chided them with questions about what they had been drinking and teased them about their fears.While the teasing was going on, an elderly man rose from his table at the rear of the cafe (after fifty years of regular patronage, he had become as familiar a part of the decor as the chrome napkin holders or the heavy sugar bowls with their hinged tops) and interrupted the chatter to ask,"Where were you when you saw the light? Out near Lochinvar?""Why yes. We were taking a short cut across the pasture there. But how did you guess?""It wasn't a guess," the old man replied. "I've been listening to you all talk, and I was pretty sure you'd seen the Lochinvar light. I've seen it, too. More than once. But it has been a long time since I've heard anybody talk about seeing it.

About the Author

Kathryn Tucker Windham grew up in Thomasville, Alabama, the youngest child in a large family of storytellers. For many years a Selma resident, Windham was a freelance writer, collected folklore, and photographed the changing scenes of her native South. A nationally recognized storyteller and a regular fixture on Alabama Public Radio, her commentaries were also featured on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” Her other books include Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey, Jeffrey Introduces Thirteen More Southern Ghosts, and Thirteen Georgia Ghosts and Jeffrey.

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