The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-08-14
DEATH OF MRS. ORR. H. LEWIS

This Much Beloved Woman Passed
Away Yesterday at quarter TO
Two-The Funeral Services viii BE
Conducted at Six O'Clock This
Afternoon. by Rev. DIR. M. M. Mar
shall. From Christ Church.
After an illness of fire weeks, Mrs. DR..
R Fl. Lewis died yesterday afternoon, at
quarter to two, of typhoid fever, at the
home of her husband, DR.. r Il. Lewis,
of this city.
Mrs. Lewis had been considered, about
two weeks ago, almost conyalescent.
Then came relapse, since which time
the tidings from the bedside have only
traced the different shades of an illness
that was doubtless at all times critical.
Sunday night, the second crisis seemed
to be near, and Monday morning
it was hoped that the safe
passage of the patient over the
danger line was being made. Those
near her then, including the physicians,
seemed to take new heart, and hopeless
alarm did not begin to be felt until Mon
day night when sharp rise of tempera-
ture caused all to fear that the patient
would not live until morning. Tues
day morning wore on. while the patient
grew constantly weaker. Suddenly,
about half past one, there came an attack
of heart failure, and all was over.
Gathered about her, were her devoted
husband and her deeply stricken brothers,
Messrs. Armistead @. and James Lind
say Gordon. Her brothers, had been
within call, without ceasing, ever since
the sickness of their sister had assumed a
serious form, and together with their
brother-in-law, DR.. Lewis, they had sat
nearby, with hope and cheer and courage,
and with every help that comes from the
hands and hearts of tenderest love.
Then, too, every breath of the patient
had been narrowly watched by corps of
nurses as skilled as they were intelligent,
and the brilliant physician in charge,
had abandoned his practice to fight for
the life OF his friend and the wife
of his friend, associating with him
self in consultation another physician
whose knowledge and experience are
household words in Raleigh. Thus no
human ministrations, either of science,
or of comfort, or of love were left unap-
piled toward the lifting up of the dear
one from her bed of sickness.
But she did not come forth: against it
all, she fell asleep.
1t seems but a few years since beauti
full Mary Lindsay Gordon passed from
her blithe girlhood in Albemarle county,
Virginia, into womanhood and wifehood.
Although she was native of North Car
DINA, having been born in Warrenton,
and a descendant of distinguished
North Carolinian, having been grand
daughter of the lateJudge Daniel, who sat
on the Supreme court bench of this State,
yet on her fathers side she was claimed
by Virginia where her younger days
were spent. For from the beginning of
the history of the Old Dominion, the
name of Gordon has helped to make the
honored record of the State, and few
there be there nov who do not remem-
Der the services of W. T. Gordon, the
brilliant member of Congress from AL
bemarle, and his son, the deceased's
father, whose gallant death on the battle
field may well be a deathless memory.
Thus bringing to her home in Raleigh,
together with rare spiritual nature
and deep religious experience, also
mental gifts that were a apart
of her people from either side,
the warmth of the personality Of the
Young bride of five years ago began at
once TO be felt by all classes of this com
munity.
If her light did not shine in the put-
lie ways of men, it was seen in the hum
be life of Him who is the real light Of
men. With a home life and home-su.-
roundings that gave sweet and constant
impetus TO the beautiful and the inte,-
lectual within her, she gave dawn to her
domestic domain, and beyond that, gave
MONDAY to those whose brows were
Swallowed with the twilight of grief.
'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
the least of these, We have done it unto
Me-" her steps, hidden from the worlds
eye. moved to this music along the dim
ways of those that were anhungered,
and she gave them to eat, and of those
that were athirst, and she gave them 10
drink, and of those that were naked,
and she clothed them. Was this her
only music9 No "Suffer little chill
dren to come unto me and forbid them
not" this note, too, she heard and told
it again in all its sweetness to those who
will listen in vain for it now.
Small wonder then that though her
life in this city has not been through
many years she has been as tree plant
ed by the rivers of water, and her leaY, s
shall not wither
But she would have her praises untold
here; she wouldc, ould she speak, doubt
less say: ''If have done aught for the
needy, let the loving, silent thr0b of some
sorrowed heart be sufficient, if only it
were soothed."