The Cone Bottoms Hall ghost story has been around since the early 1900s and continues to be told even today.
The story is set inside Cone Bottoms, which used to be a freshman girl’s dorm building. There are a few different versions of the story, but the main theme is consistent.
The version of the story told in the 40s starts out with the story of a Ouachita girl who committed suicide after finding out that her boyfriend, whom she thought she was going to marry, had dumped her for another Ouachita girl. She was said to have killed herself in her dorm room inside Cone Bottoms.
“Her ghost was said to reside in the basement of Cone Bottoms and she would often roam the halls at night searching for the girl who stole her man and seeking revenge,” said Shirley Hardin, Ouachita’s assistant registrar.
The ghost is referred to as “The Lady in Black.” She is said to have worn a black flowing dress and her hair was wild. She had her face covered with a black veil and carried a butcher knife on occasion.
“Upperclassmen in Cone Bottoms used the legend to frighten freshmen,” Hardin said.
The freshman that were targeted were typically girls that were thought to think highly of themselves or seemed to be disrespectful. The upper classmen would arrange for one of them to dress up as “The Lady in Black” to act like her.
“News would spread that the ghost was walking that night. A few upperclassmen arranged to be in the chosen freshman’s room that evening,” said Hardin.” At the appointed time, other girls began to make noises that came closer and closer to the student’s room.”
The older girls that were in the room with the freshman would pretend to be scared of what was happening. They would then make the freshman really scared and believe that the ghost was actually coming. The door would eventually fly open and the ghost would be standing there screaming. This would cause extreme chaos with the girls.
“When I was a freshman, we heard about ‘The Lady in Black’ but nobody ever came around to act like her,” said Krista Carlisle, a senior accounting major. “It was only a story by our time.”
Other versions of this ghost story say different ways that the girl killed herself. In the 70’s, Neno Nowlin Flaig said that she heard “the girl’s fiancé was killed in WWII and she killed herself when she was notified of his death.” There are other versions on her death that have been stated over the years.
“Over the years, there have been reports of blood on walls, windows breaking without explanation, a figure appearing in a window as well as in old photographs of Cone Bottoms, and “orbs” seen in the basement,” said Hardin.
To this day, the ghost is still suspected to haunt Cone Bottoms. But, no one actually knows if they are really hearing the ghost or if it is just their imagination.
