The Washington bee., 1908-09-19
An 0CTOROOI POSED
rs 4 WRITE GIRL.
Chicago Negress For Many
Years Concealed Her
Secret.
MOTHER TELLS STORY
Why Lillian Beatrice Watkins Conn
mitted SuiCide-o$Ck Of the Girls
Story is a Tragic Narrative of Race
Conflict Which Brought Aching
Hearts to q Score.

/ CllCaSO, lil--Lilllan Beatrice wat
/ kins, a beautiful negress. who for
| years passed herself of as a white
, girl. killed herself when her cup OF
/ bitterness became fall to overfiowing.
A man had fallen in love with her,
! and passionateiy loving him in re-
! turn, she confessed her secret to him.
! He gave her $4,000. married anoth-
! eT girl and a month later blew out
/ his brains in Washington Park. The
girl in planning of her own death
adopted his method. even to sending
q bullet crashing into her right tenn
pie.
{ Back of the girls death is tragic
/ story of a conflict o race which
| brought aching hearts TO score of
persens. As the young girl lay in
north side undertaking room ne
i gress bent and witherea. leaned over
the body and wept.
She was the girls mother, who in
order TO allow her only daughter to
associate with white folks, had given
/ her up and passed her daily on the
street without sign of recognition.
/ And yet the golden haired octoroon
! loved her dark skinned mother, and
+ on secret visits to her home iavished
/ affection upon her.
Thomas F. Kennedy the motive
( for whose suicide in Washington
/ Park on January last had been a mys-
| terry until now, was the man who fell
/ in love with the ill-fated girl. She
returned his Iove and told her moth
/ er that they were engaged and that
she intended 10 keep her race Sc
| cret, but she worried so over possible
| discovery that one night she sObbed
out the truth. Kennedy left her and
a month afterward married Gwendo-
! Iyn Reese. Four weeks after his
marriage Kennedy was found dead in
| Washington Park, only a few blocks
/ from his home where he had furnish
| ed elegant apartments for his bride.
Lillian Watkins the last year had
! been living at the home of Samuel
! c. Phinney, No. 376 Dearborn ave.
Mr. and Mrs Phinney never suspect
| ed that the girl was a negress. Miss
| watkins was employed as a stenO-
| grapher in the First Trust and Saw
/ ings Bank, and all of her fellow
| workers thought she was a Causcas-
| ian. On one or two occasions friends
| had remarked that she had rather q
dark skin, and Miss Watkins always
| turned the subject by remarking
careIessIy that she had Hindu blood,
as her grandfather was Hindu.
She studied at the University Of
/ Chicago. At one time she lived at
/ the Virginia Hotel and for a few
months was a guest at the Warner
Hotel, Thirty-third street and Cot
tage Grove avenue.
Mrs. Ida Watkins, theN girls moth
/ er, lives at 1871 Forest avenue. With
tears streaming down her face she
! told the story of her daughters
struggle to obtain recognition as a
white.
MY child's misfortune was that
/ she was born with a white skin and
| golden hair. Oh, how proud | was
/ of my little baby when she lay at my
breast and l saw her delicate skin
I and golden tTesses. / little thought
of the shame and misery it would
/ cause her later in life. Her father
was a white-skinned mulatt0 and Lii
/ lian was even whittier than he.
Until my little girl was sixteen
/ years old she always passed as a col
ored girl. Then a schoolmate put it
into her head that she could pass as
a white girl, and she came home and
/ told me that, while she still loved
me, she wanted to be known as a
/ white girl and asked me not to rec
/ onize her as my daughter. l thought
my heart would break and we both
! cried for hours, but fnallyI saw that
Lillians happiness depended on the
I sacrifice and / made It,
Then Lillian became converted
| to the Catholic religion and entered
a convent in Buffalo, n. Y. She
wanted TO take the veil but became
| i'll and confessed to the priest that
| she was a negress. l was living in
/ Hamilton, Ohio, at that time, and
Lillian came home. A few months
| afterward she came to Chicago and
| then sent for me. She explained
! gently that she was known as a
white girl and would have to visit me
secretly. She gave me $50 a month
! for my expenses and came to see me
| three times g month. When We
| passed on the street we did not rec
| ogniZe each other.
] Then came my daughters great
unhappiness She Dassionately loved
Thomas Kennedy and she told me
that he loved her. She told him her
secret and they parted. He married
| in a few weeks and month after
! ward shot himself. He gave Lillian
! SIS, 200. She mas left me all of this
money in her will, and In her will
! wrote that | was her nearest and
/ dearest relative. So you see she did
F.: love ne although my skin is black. !"
Miss Watkins shot herself in ner
room at the Phinney home. She eyi-
! deptIy had deIiberated a long time