OBIT: Lydia SAYLOR, 1942, Central City, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
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LYDIA SAYLOR

Third Suicide Attempt Fatal
Central City Woman Killed Herself with Gun After Hanging and Poison Failed

  Mrs. James J. Saylor, wife of a Central City miner, ended her life with a 
shotgun last Friday evening after two previous attempts at suicide had proven 
unsuccessful.
  Twenty years ago she tried to kill herself by hanging but was discovered and 
cut down before her strangulation was complete.
  Eight years later she tired of life again and took poison, but was saved from 
self-destruction again by timely interference and application of effective 
antidotes.
  For twelve years more she continued to live and attend to her household duties 
as wife and mother.
  Late Friday afternoon while her husband and son, William, were away from home, 
and her younger son, James Jr., who had remained at home with his mother, went 
on an errand to a neighbor's home, she finally accomplished her determination to 
die by her own hand.
  Son James had been away from the family home only a short time before he 
returned.  His mother was not in sight when he re-entered the house and when he 
raised his voice to ask where she was, he got no response.  Thereupon he went 
from room to room looking for her, and finally when he went into the cellar he 
found her dead body on the cellar floor and a shotgun lying where it had fallen 
after being discharged.
  The youth immediately called for help.  Coroner P. S. Dosch of Somerset was 
notified and hastened to the scene of the tragedy.  After investigation the 
coroner reported that the woman had shot herself with a 12-gauge single barrel 
shotgun, the charge having entered under the left breast, ranged upward, coming 
out of her back and passing through the floor of the room above and lodging in 
the ceiling of that room.
  The coroner said no formal inquest would be necessary.

Meyersdale Republican, February 5, 1942