Tales of Kentucky Ghosts

9: STRANGE SOUNDS, LIGHTS, AND UNEXPLAINED EVENTS

 9 STRANGE SOUNDS, LIGHTS, AND UNEXPLAINED EVENTS Girl’s Ghost Leaves Pennies Warren County Potter Hall, located on the campus of Western Kentucky University, is known for strange and unexplained happenings. Many people working in this building tell stories about their personal experiences of encountering the ghost of a young female who hanged herself in a ground floor dorm room, shortly after her boyfriend broke off their relationship. Today, Potter Hall houses administrative offices, and the ghost commonly known as Penny frequents every floor. One morning, the building service attendant began her day at 4:00 A.M. by vacuuming an area of carpet in the lobby. Upon completion of her task, she noticed several pennies lined in a row on the freshly cleaned carpet. She knew she had been visited by Penny, the ghost. Another day, an administrator on the ground floor was washing her hands after using the restroom. She heard the sound of coins hitting the tile floor. Turning around to investigate the noise, she found three pennies lying on the tile. I, myself, working in the same office, have experienced the humor of Penny. Many times I have returned to my keyboard to find pennies wedged between the keys. We are not sure of the young girl’s name who found her demise in Potter Hall, but she is well known as “Penny,” because she chooses to leave the copper coins as her trail. Anonymous contributor, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, December 28, 2007 158 Tales of Kentucky Ghosts Ghost of Van Meter Auditorium Warren County There was this man that was working in Van Meter on the last night of the stage production, and he fell and came down. Certain people have supposedly seen his spirit as the ghost of Van Meter. Some were staying in the building, one of whom was a boy who didn’t actually believe there was such a thing as he had been told. He stayed in the building that night. He was sleeping on the stage, and he felt a presence at two o’clock that morning. He looked up and saw a bright blue light. Because of that, they replaced a window at the back of the stage. Another boy went up into the loft above the stage, where the ghost is supposed to stay, and he quickly dropped out of school, because he saw a light, real bright and blue. When he dropped out of school, he took psychiatric treatments. Always it’s a bright blue light that they see, along with certain other things. And there’s been other strange occurrences. I talked with the janitor in Van Meter, and he told me he stayed in there one night because it was snowing really bad. He said he’d never spend the night there again because of the noises that go on there. Sammy Lawson, as told to Nelson Graham, Meade County, January 5, 1968. Courtesy of Folklife Archives at Kentucky Library, Western Kentucky University Insane Girl’s Ghost Scott County There was a dormitory at Georgetown College, with four floors. And there was a timid girl who lived by herself on one of the floors. She was studying to be a nurse, and two girls that lived next to her were also studying to be nurses. Their room had light cords that hung from the ceiling. One night the girl went out, so the two girls next to her decided to play a joke on her. They got an arm from a cadaver, and hung it on the light cord with the hand hanging down. They waited in their room for the girl to come in. STRANGE SOUNDS, LIGHTS, AND UNEXPLAINED EVENTS 159 The girl came in and the light came on, but they didn’t hear her scream or anything. After a few minutes, they looked into the room and saw the girl sitting in the corner, rocking the arm and taking bites from it. The girl died in an asylum shortly thereafter. Her ghost began haunting the floor. The two girls who played the trick on her were found dead in their beds. Their hair had turned white, and their eyes were staring at the door. After this, the girl’s ghost kept appearing, so they closed the fourth floor. The girls on the third floor could hear footsteps on the floor above them. The police looked on the...