Isle of Wight County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Pittman and Gay, 1933 

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LUCILLE GAY PITTMAN 

FRED ALLEN PITTMAN JR. 

ELSIE GAY 

WOMAN AND TWO CHILDREN PERISH IN FIRE AT ZUNI 

Trio Burned To Death When Flames Destroy House Last Midnight 

Among the Dead Are Mrs. Fred Pittman, Her Infant Son and Eight-Year-Old 
   Sister, Elsie Gay; Third Child Escapes Holocaust; Tragedy Occurs While 
   Parents Are in Suffolk Doing Christmas Shopping. 


  A midnight fire on the edge of Zuni, Isle of Wight county, last night took 
the lives of a mother, her two-year-old son and her little sister.  The dead 
are: Mrs. Fred Pittman, aged 22; Fred, Jr., aged two; and Elsie Gay, aged 8. 
A third child, Ethel Gay, aged 9, escaped. 

  Mrs. Pittman and the smaller girl were daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence 
Gay.  The parents had been in Suffolk shopping for Christmas and returned just 
after midnight to find their home and those for whom they had hoped to bring 
happiness on Christmas morning in ashes. 

  Mrs. Pittman and her son were making their home with her parents 
temporarily.  Mr. Pittman was working in Ivor. 

  Fire was discovered by neighbors shortly after midnight, but the flames 
enveloped the two-story frame house so quickly that it was impossible for them 
to enter the building in an effort to save the sleeping occupants.  From the 
position of the bodies this morning, it is believed that they never left their 
beds. 

  Ethel Gay was found in the yard by neighbors who rushed to the burning home. 
How she escaped, the child was unable to make clear, stating that she "just 
woke up and saw a big fire and than ran."  The little girl said that she could 
not reach Mrs. Pittman and her sister Elsie. 

  Funeral services for the three victims will be held at Antioch Christian 
church tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. 

****************************************************************************** 

Three Persons Die When Fire Consumes Home of Isle of Wight Family 

  While their parents were on their way home from a Christmas shopping trip 
Friday night to Suffolk, Mrs. Lucille Gay Pittman and her 8-year-old sister, 
Elsie Gay, and Mrs. Pittman's 2-year-old son, Fred Pittman, Jr., were trapped 
by and perished in a fire of unknown origin which destroyed their home in Zuni 
about 12:30 o'clock. 

  Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Gay, parents of Mrs. Pittman and Elsie Gay and 
grandparents of the 2-year-old boy, arrived at Zuni to find their home a heap 
of blackened ruins hiding the three bodies. 

  Ethel Gay, Mrs. Pittman's sister, narrowly escaped the fate which overtook 
her two sister's [sic] and little nephew.  She awoke in time, and, failing in 
an effort to reach the others in the house, ran from the blazing building just 
in time. 

  Mrs. Pittman, whose husband, Fred Pittman, was working at Ivor, had been 
making her home with her parents for some little time Friday after Mr. and 
Mrs. Gay went to Suffolk to do some Christmas shopping.  Fred Pittman, her 
little son, and Elsie and Ethel Gay were the only ones in the house. 

  As the frame building flared up, neighbors from miles around flocked to the 
blaze, but were powerless in the face of the terrific heat.  Terrified and 
heartbroken, little Ethel Gay told people who had gathered in the yard that 
she "woke up and saw a big fire and ran. 

  News of the tragedy spread rapidly through the little communities around 
Zuni and threw a pall over the pre-Christmas celebrations.  Mr. and Mrs. Gay 
and their children are well known in the section. 

  Funeral services for the victims of the fire were held Sunday afternoon at 
Antioch Christian Church.


Lucille (GAY; Mrs. Fred A. [Sr.]) PITTMAN, 
Isle of Wight Co. native, d. in fire 23 Dec 1933, at home, near Zuni, age 19, 

Fred Allen PITTMAN, Jr., son of Fred A. & Lucille (GAY) PITTMAN, 
d. in fire 23 Dec 1933, at home, near Zuni, age 19 months, 

Elsie GAY, daughter of Clarence H. & Odie Blanche (GRIGGS) GAY, 
d. in fire 23 Dec 1933, at home, near Zuni, age circa 8, 

interred in Antioch Christian Church Cemetery*, near Windsor, 24 Dec 1933, 
"Suffolk (VA) News-Herald," Vol. 11, No. 235, Sat., Dec. 23, 1933, p. 1; 
"Smithfield (VA) Times," Vol. 13, No. 38, Thurs., Dec. 28, 1933, p. 1 

*Additional information: 

Antioch list, an extension of the Southampton County Historical Society 
   {SCHS} Cemetery Project: 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/isleofwight/cemeteries/antioch.txt 

Unmarked?  Not on Isle of Wight County Historical Society {IWCHS} 
   Grave Site Survey Task Force {GSSTF} report #20: 
   http://www.iwchs.com/Cemetery-Reports.html 

No Find a Grave Memorial for any of the three. 

Elsie's parents have Find a Grave Memorials (#201142859 & #104764403), 
   but they are not on the GSSTF report, either. 

Elsie's D.Cert. 27324 (Hardy #16) gives d. 16 Dec 1933, age 6. 
   Her family does not appear in Iow.Co. in the 1930 Census. 

Fred Allen PITTMAN, Sr. (1906 - 1948), remarried and is buried in 
   Mill Swamp Baptist Church Cemetery.  {IWCHS GSSTF report #55} 

Lucille & Fred's D.Certs. (#27322 & 27323) give 22 Dec {Friday}; 
   the fire seems to have occurred at 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning. 

Elsie's date of death was initially left blank on her D.Cert. (#27324). 
   undertaker [E.] Jerome Raiford then supplied wrong date 16 Dec {Saturday}, 
   at 12:30 a.m. 

Elsie's widowed mother 2m. widower John Cornelius DIXON.  Her obits 
   ("Suffolk News-Herald," June 12, 14, & 15, 1959) are posted at: 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/isleofwight/obits/d250o1ob.txt 


Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
Carolyn Keen (VAHistoricHouses@aol.com) & 
Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), 
and re-formatted by File Manager Matt Harris. 

file at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/isleofwight/obits/p355l1ob.txt