Malta Mae LEE

June 5, 1914-November 16, 1940

*Photo/information, courtesy of Edith Guynes Stanley

*Obituary
Earl Odom, former cook at the B. & B. Cafe here, was bound over to the county grand jury without bond this morning on charges of murder with malice aforethought by Justice of the Peace G.C. Knight in connection with the alleged murder of Mrs. Mae Lee, 26, of 812 N. Whittenburg, early Sunday morning.

Funeral services for Mrs. Lee will be held tomorrow afternoon at the Holt school house, with the Rev. Matthew Doyle, Baptist minister at Spearman, officiating.

Burial will be in the Holt cemetery under direction of the Powell Funeral Home of Borger.

Survivors include two daughters, Willa Dean, 10, and Christean, 8; a son, Loverd, 6; her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Christian of Stonewall, Okla.

Also one brother, Clyde Christian, Stonewall; a sister, Mrs. G.W. Brown, Stonewall; her father-in-law, J.C. Lee of Holt; and her estranged husband, L.F. Lee, who is confined to a hospital in Bakersfield, Calif.

According to reports by Dale Lane and Jack Julian, city police who investigated the alleged murder, and Sheriff Vern Underhill, who took charge of Odom, the affray was apparently premeditated.

Mrs. Lee returned to her home about 1 o'clock Sunday morning in company with Milton Alexander of Borger, the officers said. Previously, the officers continued, Odom had entered the house and crawled under the bed in the middle room.

Lane's story follows:

"As soon as the couple entered the house, Odom jumped from under the bed and flourished a 38-caliber pistol." The gun reportedly belonged to Mrs. Lee and shells were purchased by Odom last Saturday.

"Odom threatened Alexander and told him to 'get out of the house or I'll kill you'," Willa Dean, meanwhile, went to Nix's Grocery and called the police and Alexander headed for the police station on foot.

Officers Lane, Julian and special policeman "Doc" Alexander met Alexander a few minutes later and rushed to the house, where they found both the front and rear doors locked an a light on in the rear room.

"We crashed the door in just as the shot range out," the story continued, "and knocked the gun out of Odom's hand just as he was about to turn it on himself."

Lane caught the alleged murderer as Julian picked up the fallen woman and they rushed the pair to the hospital. She died on the way.

"Officer Alexander stood at the window of the darkened room and heard the three children plead and beg Odom to 'don't hurt my mama,' but could not fire on the man without hitting the children."

Lane said Odom apparently held the woman with one arm and pressed the pistol against the end of her collar-bone, near the base of her neck. One of her hands was badly powder-burned in an attempt to ward off the shot, he said.

The bullet entered at that spot and came out on her left side near the waist. Undertakers said her jugular vein was split by the impact.

Odom apparently was not drunk, investigating officers said, and would say nothing but, "I don't know why I did it."

He will be taken to the county jail at Stinnett this afternoon by the sheriff's department. County is scheduled to open on Feb. 3.

(Published in Borger Daily Herald, Monday, November 18, 1940, Page 1 and 5)
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Texas, Death Index, 1903-2000
Name: Mae Lee
Death Date: 17 Nov 1940
Death County: Hutchinson
Certificate: 51191

Texas, Death Certificates, 1903-1982
Name: Mae Lee
[Mae Christian]
Gender: Female
Race: White
Age: 26
Birth Date: 5 Jun 1914
Birth Place: Oklahoma
Residence: Borger, Hutchinson, Texas, USA
Death Date: 17 Nov 1940
Death Place: Borger, Hutchinson, Texas, USA
Father: Richard Christian
Mother: Alta Williams

Contributed on 11/20/20 by neldapat
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Record #: 367423

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