Nansemond County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Bowers, Clyde M., 1936 

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NEGRO STABS MAN IN BOLD HOLD UP 

Clyde Bowers In Hospital With Punctured Lung Received 
   When He Was Held Up and Robbed Saturday Night 

  Stabbed and robbed early Sunday morning, Clyde Bowers was under treatment in 
Virginia hospital today for a punctured left lung. 

  Dr. O.R. Yates, attending physician, said Bowers would probably be able to 
leave the hospital in three or four days if no complications set in. 

  The stabbing occurred between 12 and 1 a.m. when Bowers was returning home 
for the night.  He was robbed of 66 cents.  After going to the last show 
Satururday night Bowers spent some time talking to friends and then started 
home.  When he had nearly reached his destination, 521 North Main street, an 
unidentified Negro man grabbed him by the arm and demanded his money. 

  Having but a small amount of change with him, Bowers told the man he was 
broke.  It was then that he saw a knife in the man's hand and realized it was 
a holdup. 

  In an effort to avoid injury he gave the man 66 cents.  But the Negro, 
dissatisfied with the amount of his loot, stabbed Bowers in the chest. 

  As he attempted to defend himself Bowers was stabbed a second time, the 
knife penetrating his chest above his heart and puncturing his left lung. 

  His cries for assistance brought his mother rushing to his side.  The Negro 
made off, running south toward the Seaboard railroad. 

  Bowers said he failed to recognize the Negro.  But he described him as 
short, heavily built and wearing a grey sweater, dark trousers and dark cap. 

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

DEATH OF BOWERS LEADS TO ARREST OF A SUSPECT 

Wesley Cousins Held For The Fatal Stabbing of Suffolk Resident 
   Who Succumbed In Hospital

  Wesley Cousins, 26, Negro, was arrested in Boykins last night and brought 
to Suffolk to stand trial on a charge of murder. 

  The arrest of Cousins was almost simultaneous with the death of Clyde M. 
Bowers, 29-year-old white man, from a knife wound which police here charge 
Cousins inflicted.  Bowers died at a local hospital where he had been 
receiving treatment since being wounded early last Sunday morning just before 
entering his North Main street home. 

  Cousins was convicted in Nansemond circuit court last year of stabbing 
Glenwood Baker, colored, and sentenced to a year at the state prison.  He had 
but recently completed his sentence. 

  Following his arrest last night, Police Chief H.W. Churn quoted Cousins as 
saying: "If I did it, I don't remember."  He made a similar defense when tried 
for wounding Baker. 

  Churn said today that police have an eye-witness to the stabbing and others 
who will give corroborative testimony with which to sustain their charge 
against Cousins.  The police chief declined to identify his prospective 
witnesses. 

  Cousins was arrested by Southampton authorities at Boykins last night in 
response to information as to his whereabouts supplied by Suffolk police. 
Chief Churn and Sergeant Thomas L. Salmon brought Cousins to jail here last 
night shortly after he was placed in custody. 

  Surviving Mr. Bowers are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Bowers; two 
brothers, Charles L. and W.H. Bowers, Jr.; two sisters, Mrs. C.H. Williams, 
of Portsmouth, and Mrs. J.V. Pritchard, of Suffolk. 

  Funeral services will be held Sunday at 3 p.m. at Main Street Methodist 
Church, with the Rev. Dr. George W. Jones conducting the rites, assisted by 
the Rev. Dr. H.J. Goodwin.  Burial will be in Cedar Hill cemetery. 

  Pallbearers named for the service are R.A. Bowles, Mills Hingerty, W.B. 
Berkley, J.W. Tyler and Johnnie Morgan. 


Clyde M. BOWERS, cashier, 
b. 22 Sep 1905, Suffolk, d. 27 Nov 1936, Suffolk, 
interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery*, Suffolk, 29 Nov 1936, 
"Suffolk News-Herald," Vol. 14, No. 207, Mon., Nov. 23, 1936, p. 1; 
"Suffolk News-Herald," Vol. 14, No. 211, Sat., Nov. 28, 1936, pp. 1 & 6 

*Additional information: 

Cedar Hill list, an extension of the Southampton County Historical Society 
   {SCHS} Cemetery Project: 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/cemeteries/cedar_a.txt 

A photo of her gravestone - added by Jenny - is posted with Find a Grave 
   Memorial #14453181. 

His parents, William Henry & "Lula" Louise Virginia (THOMPSON) BOWERS, 
   are also buried there. 

D.Cert. 27150 (Suffolk #378) 


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File Manager Matt Harris (zoobug64@aol.com). 

file at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/obits/b620c10o.txt