jrstephens
- 7,133
A friend's daughter is going to cheerleader campand they have a gift for each girl. It red clothing and has hearts on it somewhere I have not seen it. It is to be worn the night this ghost story is told about the college. She wants the word "heart" in it and for the saying to tell them to wear it on this night.
Here's the ghost story:
Huntingdon College's Red Lady
This is the story of The Red Lady as told by Kathryn Tucker Windham in the book 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey
The ghost was a former student named Martha who had lived a sorrowful life which came to a tragic end in her room on the fourth floor of Pratt Hall. Martha was from New York, and she came to Huntingdon because her father's will specified that his daughter must attend her grandmother's-his mother's-alma mater. This alma mater had been Huntingdon when it was located in Tuskegee. Martha did not especially want to come to Alabama, but her father's fortune was large and she knew his deep love for his home state of Alabama. So, although knowing no one in this area, Martha reluctantly came to Huntingdon. She was dressed in red when she arrived, and she brought with her red draperies for her windows and a red spread for her bed as well as other accessories of the same color. From the beginning she refused to explain her apparent obsession with the color red to the other girls.
Being a stranger and shy as well as unhappy in her unfamiliar surroundings, she could not make friends among the students. They sensed that she was different from them and having heard she was wealthy, they mistook her shyness for disdain.
Martha sat alone and apart from them in the dining hall. She seldom spoke to her roommate, and when the girls dropped in to visit she seemed so cold and unfriendly they stopped coming. Truthfully, many of them had come out of curiosity to see the red prayer rug Martha had bought in Turkey and the odd little red figurines on her bookshelves.
Her roommate found the situation unbearable and asked the housemother if she could move out. The housemother granted this request and put someone else in the room with Martha, who became increasingly aloof and irritable. This second girl also left her after only a week.
This procedure happened again and again as one roommate after another found it impossible to live with the surly girl. At last the president of the dormitory, who was known for her ability to get along with everybody, moved in with Martha and did everything she could to make friends with her, but all efforts were futile. Martha had become embittered as well as withdrawn, and she seemed to resent the presence of this kindhearted girl.
After all her efforts at friendship had failed and after she found herself growing depressed and despondent, the dormitory president packed her belongings and prepared to leave. Just as she was about to go, Martha, who had not known of her imminent departure, returned to the room. With a look of defiance she said, "So you couldn't stand me either - like all the rest of your stuck up friends. I was beginning to think you really wanted me to be your friend but you hate me just like the rest. Well, I'm glad to be rid of you! Take your things and go! But I'll tell you one thing, my dear: for the rest of your life you'll regret leaving this room." The house president was disturbed by this bitter outburst but in the midst of her many activities she soon forgot about Martha's prophetic words.
The sad girl, abandoned by the person she believed to be her only friend, formed the habit of wandering into the rooms where the other girls were congregating, but her presence cast a chill upon the groups and they would soon find flimsy excuses for leaving her alone. Then, with a feeling of alienation from all humankind, she would return to her solitary sleeping quarters, where she would wrap herself in her red bedspread and retreat from the whole world.
Later, her behavior became even more strange. She would wait until the lights were out and then she would visit one dormitory after another, never saying a word but staring into space as if she were in a trance. As time passed, she took to walking up and down the halls during the darkest hours of the night. Often she would alarm the girls by opening and closing their doors, then hurrying away to resume her pitiful promenade.
One evening after Martha had not appeared for classes or meals all day, her former roommate, the dormitory president, had a guilty feeling and decided to go see her, thinking that this time she might be able to help Martha in some way. As she neared Martha's room at an isolated corridor at the top floor of the building, she noticed the first of the now famous flashes of red shooting out into the corridor, down from the room's transom as so many have since seen. She opened the door and screamed. Girls from all over the fourth floor of Pratt rushed from their rooms to see what was wrong.
They found the dormitory president lying in a faint within the doorway of Martha's room. Not more than three feet beyond her lay Martha, dressed in her red robe and draped in her red bedspread, with blood around her on the floor. Martha had carried out her threat by slashing her wrists and bleeding to death.
This happened a long time ago, but students at Huntingdon say that on the date of Martha's suicide each year rays of crimson light flash down from the transom of her room, and the Red Lady in returns to haunt the corridors of Pratt Hall.
Here's the ghost story:
Huntingdon College's Red Lady
This is the story of The Red Lady as told by Kathryn Tucker Windham in the book 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey
The ghost was a former student named Martha who had lived a sorrowful life which came to a tragic end in her room on the fourth floor of Pratt Hall. Martha was from New York, and she came to Huntingdon because her father's will specified that his daughter must attend her grandmother's-his mother's-alma mater. This alma mater had been Huntingdon when it was located in Tuskegee. Martha did not especially want to come to Alabama, but her father's fortune was large and she knew his deep love for his home state of Alabama. So, although knowing no one in this area, Martha reluctantly came to Huntingdon. She was dressed in red when she arrived, and she brought with her red draperies for her windows and a red spread for her bed as well as other accessories of the same color. From the beginning she refused to explain her apparent obsession with the color red to the other girls.
Being a stranger and shy as well as unhappy in her unfamiliar surroundings, she could not make friends among the students. They sensed that she was different from them and having heard she was wealthy, they mistook her shyness for disdain.
Martha sat alone and apart from them in the dining hall. She seldom spoke to her roommate, and when the girls dropped in to visit she seemed so cold and unfriendly they stopped coming. Truthfully, many of them had come out of curiosity to see the red prayer rug Martha had bought in Turkey and the odd little red figurines on her bookshelves.
Her roommate found the situation unbearable and asked the housemother if she could move out. The housemother granted this request and put someone else in the room with Martha, who became increasingly aloof and irritable. This second girl also left her after only a week.
This procedure happened again and again as one roommate after another found it impossible to live with the surly girl. At last the president of the dormitory, who was known for her ability to get along with everybody, moved in with Martha and did everything she could to make friends with her, but all efforts were futile. Martha had become embittered as well as withdrawn, and she seemed to resent the presence of this kindhearted girl.
After all her efforts at friendship had failed and after she found herself growing depressed and despondent, the dormitory president packed her belongings and prepared to leave. Just as she was about to go, Martha, who had not known of her imminent departure, returned to the room. With a look of defiance she said, "So you couldn't stand me either - like all the rest of your stuck up friends. I was beginning to think you really wanted me to be your friend but you hate me just like the rest. Well, I'm glad to be rid of you! Take your things and go! But I'll tell you one thing, my dear: for the rest of your life you'll regret leaving this room." The house president was disturbed by this bitter outburst but in the midst of her many activities she soon forgot about Martha's prophetic words.
The sad girl, abandoned by the person she believed to be her only friend, formed the habit of wandering into the rooms where the other girls were congregating, but her presence cast a chill upon the groups and they would soon find flimsy excuses for leaving her alone. Then, with a feeling of alienation from all humankind, she would return to her solitary sleeping quarters, where she would wrap herself in her red bedspread and retreat from the whole world.
Later, her behavior became even more strange. She would wait until the lights were out and then she would visit one dormitory after another, never saying a word but staring into space as if she were in a trance. As time passed, she took to walking up and down the halls during the darkest hours of the night. Often she would alarm the girls by opening and closing their doors, then hurrying away to resume her pitiful promenade.
One evening after Martha had not appeared for classes or meals all day, her former roommate, the dormitory president, had a guilty feeling and decided to go see her, thinking that this time she might be able to help Martha in some way. As she neared Martha's room at an isolated corridor at the top floor of the building, she noticed the first of the now famous flashes of red shooting out into the corridor, down from the room's transom as so many have since seen. She opened the door and screamed. Girls from all over the fourth floor of Pratt rushed from their rooms to see what was wrong.
They found the dormitory president lying in a faint within the doorway of Martha's room. Not more than three feet beyond her lay Martha, dressed in her red robe and draped in her red bedspread, with blood around her on the floor. Martha had carried out her threat by slashing her wrists and bleeding to death.
This happened a long time ago, but students at Huntingdon say that on the date of Martha's suicide each year rays of crimson light flash down from the transom of her room, and the Red Lady in returns to haunt the corridors of Pratt Hall.