Sympathy Saturday - The Other Woman - Kittie Loughrey

This is the last in a 4 part series about the scandal of Leo Hall abandonment of his family.  Here are the other entries:
1.  Leo W Hall, Bigamist and Scoundrel
2.  The Manhunt and "Death" of Leo Hall
3.  The Aftermath of Leo Hall's Betrayal
It is easy to only feel sympathy for my wife's relative, Amelia Lanz Hall and her family, but there was another victim of Leo Hall's deception -- Kittie Loughrey.


Kittie Loughrey born May 5, 1892 was from Fulton, NY and was the daughter of James and Mary McCabe Loughrey.  She worked as a clerk at Oneida Community Plant in Sherrill (I have no information about this employer) when she met Leo Hall.  He must have been quite a charmer, since he convinced this 29 year old to marry him without knowing much about him.  They married on January 12, 1921.  The left for Florida in February for a honeymoon.  After Leo's legitimate wife started asking questions about his whereabouts, it appears that Leo Hall either abandoned his new wife, too or she realized that he was already married and left him.

Either way, Kittie Loughrey was embarrassed, ashamed and scandalized.  In the 1920's her future prospects of a happy life must have looked pretty bleak.  While still in Tampa, FL, she sent her parents the following letter which appeared in The Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY on May 27, 1921.

"Dear Momma, 

Don't think that I have forgotten you, for I have not, but mamma, under the circumstances it is best to try and forget me.  I am down here working for $12 per week.  I found out the truth about Leo and I don't feel like I as if I can come home and be as I used to be.  That is why.  I dream of home all the while and am lonesome.  My God, nobody knows. 

I don't know what I have done to this earth to be used as I have been.  I always tried to do what was right by everybody, but here I am among strangers and hundreds of miles from home.  People who do not care for me and mamma, the thought makes death feel easier in this lonesome place.  Mamma, I was innocent about Leo and I thought he was single and that I was really and truly married to him. 

What in God's name did I do to get in this trouble? How are you and dad? Maybe in a few years I will be able to come home and meet my friends when the truth is known. I am not with him now and I am working every day.  It is very hot here.  Mamma, I am going by my own name Miss Kittie Loughrey and praying that this will clear itself.
Affectionately, your daughter
"Kittie"

From the letter to her parents, they found out her return address and sent her money beseeching her to return home to Fulton, NY.   Within a few months, she did return.

She even found a husband.  She married Frederick Leggett sometime before 1930.  Frederick appears to have been married before and had two existing children.

While at the worst of her situation she may have considered if she could endure another day, she lived a very long life.  She died at the age of 96 on March 28, 1989.

I wonder if she ever told her legitimate husband what she had gone through or if that was a secret she took with her to the grave.