"Could not understand a word you said."

EX-GOV. HOGG DIES SUDDENLY IN TEXAS --The New York Times, March 4, 1906

James Stephen Hogg’s death made headlines far and wide.

The Times sub-headlines read:

         Had Been Ill for a Year; but the End Was Not Expected.

         ONCE WAS A PRINTER’S DEVIL.

Trust Fighter a Picturesque Campaigner Whose Ejaculation “By Gatlins” Swept the State.

         And in Houston, sorrow swept over Ima Hogg. Among her many messages of sympathy was a telephone call from Willis B. Reeve, but her friend W.G. Harris wrote a note to Ima after that call: “Renn told me that he rang you up but could not understand a word you said.”

         Whether that was because of a bad connection (telephones were few, and long-distance  calls were still a new-fangled notion) or because of Ima Hogg’s grief-stricken state, is not clear. But that is the last record we have so far of Willis B. Reeve. Who knows?

But Ima Hogg was paralyzed by grief, and her brothers worried about her.