Statewide County AZ Archives Obituaries.....Lee, Mrs. Horace 1909
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Elizabeth Burns burns@asu.edu and D. Joshua Taylor http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00006.html#0001358 July 4, 2005, 4:28 pm

Arizona Republican-September 16, 1909
Mrs. Horace W. Lee, one of the leading society ladies of the 
town, took her own life between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock 
yesterday morning at her home on First Street by laying down 
on the floor in the dining room and placing a 38 caliber 
revolver against her left breast and firing a bullet through 
her heart.  The husband, a well known real estate man and 
bookkeeper for the Drew Lumber Company, left the house about 
7 o'clock to go to his work and did not know what had happened 
until he returned to his home for lunch,  when he found the 
lifeless body of his wife stretched upon the floor.  Thinking 
that perhaps there was a chance for her life, he ran for the 
family physician, Dr. Palmer but he had only reached the first 
corner when he met the doctor going home and the two hurried 
to the scene of the tragedy when the fears of the distracted 
man were confirmed as Mrs. Lee was already rigid in death.

It was evident from the first that suicide was premeditated 
on account of the preparation that had been made prior to 
the act.  The body was clothed in a morning dress.  She had 
taken a pillow from the bed and lain down on the floor to meet 
her death.

Lee Funeral
September 17, 1909

The funeral services over the body of Mrs. Birdye Armstrong 
Lee, wife of Horace W. Lee were held yesterday afternoon at 
4 o'clock.  The body was taken from the home to the cemetery 
followed by the heartbroken husband and sorrowing friends.  
The pall bearers were: Dr. R.F. Palmer, George W. Silverthorn, 
J.W. Hagerlund, J.G. Spangler, A.J. Chandler and Charles 
Granger.

There was practically no new evidence brought to light since 
that given in the Republican yesterday as to the motive for 
the act.  Among the letters left by the dead woman was one to 
her husband full of endearments.  The other notes were simple, 
short and business like, giving instructions as to the 
disposition of books borrowed from some of her friends 
during the summer. The penmanship was in a clear hand and 
the contents were painfully short seemingly giving evidence 
of the determination of the woman to hurriedly end it all.

Mrs. Charles Peck who lives immediately west of the Lee home 
did not hear the shot and yet she was but a few steps away.  
From all the evidence obtainable the fatal shot was heard by 
no one.  

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