By Stephen D. Bowling

The news of a tragic fire in Breathitt County was printed in newspapers around the state. Headlines and stories told of the sad death of a brother and sister in a small, one-room cabin home beside the road at Vancleve. The real question for the community hinged on how and when they died. Some believed it was just a terrible accident, while others claimed it was murder. 

The Jackson Times ran the following story on the front page of the February 9, 1961 edition.

Couple Die As Flames Consume Little Home

For the second time within a year, fire has claimed two lives in one raging tumult of flame in Breathitt County.  The latest tragedy took place in the Vancleve section of the county Thursday, February 2, and claimed the lives of 84-year-old Jonathan Watkins and his 86-year-old sister, Fanny Banks.

On March 30 of last year, a raging fire snuffed out the lives of 90-year-old Minnie Morris and her 60-year-old blind son.

The use of kerosene was believed to have been the cause of the Morris fire, and apparently, the same deadly agent caused the holocaust near Vancleve.

Survivors of Mr. Watkins include three daughters: Mrs. Olvida Cudda, Augusta, Ga., Mrs. Dina Thomas, and Mrs. Lula Green, both of Panbowl; four sons: Johnny and James Watkins, both of Winchester, Ham Watkins of Ft. Wayne, Indiana and Sherman Watkins of Wolverine, and two half-sisters: Mrs. Lewis Kidd and Barbara Reed, both of Vancleve.

Mrs. Lewis Kidd and Barbara Reed are the only listed survivors of Mrs. Fanny Banks.

Funeral services for both victims were conducted at the Watkins Cemetery at 1 p.m. on February 3 by Rev. Willie Turner.  Burial followed in the same cemetery, with both bodies being placed in the same grave.

Breathitt Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

The Jackson Times, February 9, 1961, page 1

Jonathan Watkins, the son of John and Louisa (King) Watkins, was born in Wolfe County, Kentucky on April 10, 1876. He married Julia Ann Gillum about 1899 and, together, they had eight children. He later married Anna Blankenship in 1933 and Jane Robinson.

His sister, Fanny Watkins, was born on April 16, 1875, in Breathitt County. Exactly what name she was using at the time of her death is not known. Fannie first married J. A. Collins in 1894, but they were not married long. In 1908, she married a man named Samuel Hays. The Jackson Times identified her as Fannie Banks, but no marriage record could be found for a marriage to a Banks. In 1950, she was listed in the United States Census as Fannie Hays. 

Following the fire, rumors circulated that the deaths might not have been an accident. Around the Vancleve community, neighbors talked about a possible robbery and murder of the two victims. Stories related by local gossip mongers told of a large amount of money that Fanny Banks had received from the estate of her deceased husband. Another version of the story indicated that intruders murdered the pair on February the second because they had just gotten their Social Security checks and had cashed them the day before. Tongue wagglers named several suspects that could have done the deed, but no evidence ever surfaced to support this speculation.

Coroner Frank Fletcher believed that the fire was an accident. He noted that the two victims were found near the stove, believed to be the source of the fire. He noted that the small, single-room home only had one door. He said the pair likely became trapped in the smoke and died from smoke inhalation long before the flames reached their bodies. He told The Lexington Herald-Leader that both of the bodies were “burned beyond recognition.” No autopsy was performed.

The staff of Breathitt Funeral Home dug one large grave in the Watkins Cemetery at Wolverine and buried the siblings in the same grave.

© 2024 Stephen D. Bowling