At about age 90, my Aunt Ruby Brown Patrick (also Irma's aunt) told me that the family is said to have thought that Irma was murdered (and found out in the middle of the road in Lexington County, S. C.). Her funeral home card indicates 'auto accident'. She and her husband had just gotten divorced. Her brother, Dan, was serving in WWII during this time. The obituary is supposed to have been in the Augusta Chronicle as Irma Brown Bence. She is in this greater-family photo, HERE.
The Columbia Record newspaper of 9/18/1942, p.1, carries an article about the discovery of the body by a motorist who almost ran over it.
An obituary is in The Columbia Record newspaper of 9/19/42, p.6.
She grew up the oldest of two children in WWI times with her mother likely in economic straights. When her father returned home, he suffered the effects of having been toxic gassed in war, a condition from which he'd go on downhill & finally be moved to Asheville to slowly die.
In the summer of 2013, I found an on-line S. C. death certificate #17650 "found dead on hwy #1, Congaree, West Columbia, S. C. with fractured skull, cause unknown [and time of death estimated 3:30AM...lists her as a waitress in a cafe & living in Columbia a year; W. Morgan Caughman was Lexington County coroner]. I met with deceased Coroner WMC's son, Raymond S. Caughman on 8/29/2013 (Raymond succeeded his father as coroner but would have only been 15 or so at the time of Irma's death). Raymond did not recall any talk of the case, the death happening during the height of WWII into which Raymond would be going in 1945. Mr. RSC notes that, though money was extremely tight in those war days...rationing of food & fuel, etc.... coroner cases were vigorously investigated locally through "coroner's inquests" but with few written records except what might get into the newspapers. The above Columbia Record newspaper reports indicate that an inquest was pending. That is, there is probably no hope of investigatory records of this case existing in some archives.
Myself (ES, manager of this memorial) having been a general pathologist (physician) who also has performed forensic autopsies for decades (1971-2013), I think that this certainly could be a case of manner of death of no less than manslaughter but likely not preplanned homicide. On this slimmest of information, I cannot see how this could be a simple accident.
I was contacted by Jesse Murray Taylor, Sr's granddaughter (ETN in 2017) who (with her mother, the wife of JMT, Jr., the only child of Murray) told me that she and her mother found divorce papers of Irma & Murray who had both married very young. Their family lore is that Murray met Irma when he was staying in a boarding house that Irma's mother operated. Murray remarried to Carrie in 1937 . "My grandfather was quite the character – having lost his father at an early age, he was raised by the Masonic Home when his mother could no longer handle him. We were told some of the older family members were irate about the marriage and made sure the divorce took place. We too were told Irma was murdered and found dead in a ditch by the side a of road a few years after they divorced."
Our Brown Family lore is that Irma had married a Bence...no one knew of this first marriage...and had either left him for a job where she died or had divorced Bence. The Brown Family lore was that this was a homicide.
The Columbia Record newspaper of 9/18/1942, p.1, carries an article about the discovery of the body by a motorist who almost ran over it.
An obituary is in The Columbia Record newspaper of 9/19/42, p.6.
She grew up the oldest of two children in WWI times with her mother likely in economic straights. When her father returned home, he suffered the effects of having been toxic gassed in war, a condition from which he'd go on downhill & finally be moved to Asheville to slowly die.
In the summer of 2013, I found an on-line S. C. death certificate #17650 "found dead on hwy #1, Congaree, West Columbia, S. C. with fractured skull, cause unknown [and time of death estimated 3:30AM...lists her as a waitress in a cafe & living in Columbia a year; W. Morgan Caughman was Lexington County coroner]. I met with deceased Coroner WMC's son, Raymond S. Caughman on 8/29/2013 (Raymond succeeded his father as coroner but would have only been 15 or so at the time of Irma's death). Raymond did not recall any talk of the case, the death happening during the height of WWII into which Raymond would be going in 1945. Mr. RSC notes that, though money was extremely tight in those war days...rationing of food & fuel, etc.... coroner cases were vigorously investigated locally through "coroner's inquests" but with few written records except what might get into the newspapers. The above Columbia Record newspaper reports indicate that an inquest was pending. That is, there is probably no hope of investigatory records of this case existing in some archives.
Myself (ES, manager of this memorial) having been a general pathologist (physician) who also has performed forensic autopsies for decades (1971-2013), I think that this certainly could be a case of manner of death of no less than manslaughter but likely not preplanned homicide. On this slimmest of information, I cannot see how this could be a simple accident.
I was contacted by Jesse Murray Taylor, Sr's granddaughter (ETN in 2017) who (with her mother, the wife of JMT, Jr., the only child of Murray) told me that she and her mother found divorce papers of Irma & Murray who had both married very young. Their family lore is that Murray met Irma when he was staying in a boarding house that Irma's mother operated. Murray remarried to Carrie in 1937 . "My grandfather was quite the character – having lost his father at an early age, he was raised by the Masonic Home when his mother could no longer handle him. We were told some of the older family members were irate about the marriage and made sure the divorce took place. We too were told Irma was murdered and found dead in a ditch by the side a of road a few years after they divorced."
Our Brown Family lore is that Irma had married a Bence...no one knew of this first marriage...and had either left him for a job where she died or had divorced Bence. The Brown Family lore was that this was a homicide.
At about age 90, my Aunt Ruby Brown Patrick (also Irma's aunt) told me that the family is said to have thought that Irma was murdered (and found out in the middle of the road in Lexington County, S. C.). Her funeral home card indicates 'auto accident'. She and her husband had just gotten divorced. Her brother, Dan, was serving in WWII during this time. The obituary is supposed to have been in the Augusta Chronicle as Irma Brown Bence. She is in this greater-family photo, HERE.
The Columbia Record newspaper of 9/18/1942, p.1, carries an article about the discovery of the body by a motorist who almost ran over it.
An obituary is in The Columbia Record newspaper of 9/19/42, p.6.
She grew up the oldest of two children in WWI times with her mother likely in economic straights. When her father returned home, he suffered the effects of having been toxic gassed in war, a condition from which he'd go on downhill & finally be moved to Asheville to slowly die.
In the summer of 2013, I found an on-line S. C. death certificate #17650 "found dead on hwy #1, Congaree, West Columbia, S. C. with fractured skull, cause unknown [and time of death estimated 3:30AM...lists her as a waitress in a cafe & living in Columbia a year; W. Morgan Caughman was Lexington County coroner]. I met with deceased Coroner WMC's son, Raymond S. Caughman on 8/29/2013 (Raymond succeeded his father as coroner but would have only been 15 or so at the time of Irma's death). Raymond did not recall any talk of the case, the death happening during the height of WWII into which Raymond would be going in 1945. Mr. RSC notes that, though money was extremely tight in those war days...rationing of food & fuel, etc.... coroner cases were vigorously investigated locally through "coroner's inquests" but with few written records except what might get into the newspapers. The above Columbia Record newspaper reports indicate that an inquest was pending. That is, there is probably no hope of investigatory records of this case existing in some archives.
Myself (ES, manager of this memorial) having been a general pathologist (physician) who also has performed forensic autopsies for decades (1971-2013), I think that this certainly could be a case of manner of death of no less than manslaughter but likely not preplanned homicide. On this slimmest of information, I cannot see how this could be a simple accident.
I was contacted by Jesse Murray Taylor, Sr's granddaughter (ETN in 2017) who (with her mother, the wife of JMT, Jr., the only child of Murray) told me that she and her mother found divorce papers of Irma & Murray who had both married very young. Their family lore is that Murray met Irma when he was staying in a boarding house that Irma's mother operated. Murray remarried to Carrie in 1937 . "My grandfather was quite the character – having lost his father at an early age, he was raised by the Masonic Home when his mother could no longer handle him. We were told some of the older family members were irate about the marriage and made sure the divorce took place. We too were told Irma was murdered and found dead in a ditch by the side a of road a few years after they divorced."
Our Brown Family lore is that Irma had married a Bence...no one knew of this first marriage...and had either left him for a job where she died or had divorced Bence. The Brown Family lore was that this was a homicide.
The Columbia Record newspaper of 9/18/1942, p.1, carries an article about the discovery of the body by a motorist who almost ran over it.
An obituary is in The Columbia Record newspaper of 9/19/42, p.6.
She grew up the oldest of two children in WWI times with her mother likely in economic straights. When her father returned home, he suffered the effects of having been toxic gassed in war, a condition from which he'd go on downhill & finally be moved to Asheville to slowly die.
In the summer of 2013, I found an on-line S. C. death certificate #17650 "found dead on hwy #1, Congaree, West Columbia, S. C. with fractured skull, cause unknown [and time of death estimated 3:30AM...lists her as a waitress in a cafe & living in Columbia a year; W. Morgan Caughman was Lexington County coroner]. I met with deceased Coroner WMC's son, Raymond S. Caughman on 8/29/2013 (Raymond succeeded his father as coroner but would have only been 15 or so at the time of Irma's death). Raymond did not recall any talk of the case, the death happening during the height of WWII into which Raymond would be going in 1945. Mr. RSC notes that, though money was extremely tight in those war days...rationing of food & fuel, etc.... coroner cases were vigorously investigated locally through "coroner's inquests" but with few written records except what might get into the newspapers. The above Columbia Record newspaper reports indicate that an inquest was pending. That is, there is probably no hope of investigatory records of this case existing in some archives.
Myself (ES, manager of this memorial) having been a general pathologist (physician) who also has performed forensic autopsies for decades (1971-2013), I think that this certainly could be a case of manner of death of no less than manslaughter but likely not preplanned homicide. On this slimmest of information, I cannot see how this could be a simple accident.
I was contacted by Jesse Murray Taylor, Sr's granddaughter (ETN in 2017) who (with her mother, the wife of JMT, Jr., the only child of Murray) told me that she and her mother found divorce papers of Irma & Murray who had both married very young. Their family lore is that Murray met Irma when he was staying in a boarding house that Irma's mother operated. Murray remarried to Carrie in 1937 . "My grandfather was quite the character – having lost his father at an early age, he was raised by the Masonic Home when his mother could no longer handle him. We were told some of the older family members were irate about the marriage and made sure the divorce took place. We too were told Irma was murdered and found dead in a ditch by the side a of road a few years after they divorced."
Our Brown Family lore is that Irma had married a Bence...no one knew of this first marriage...and had either left him for a job where she died or had divorced Bence. The Brown Family lore was that this was a homicide.
Inscription
IRMA B. BENCE DAUGHTER JUNE 26, 1918 SEPTEMBER 18, 1942
Gravesite Details
Buried 9/20/1942
Family Members
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