THE RUSSELLVILLE GIRL

Russellville, Kentucky is located in the far southwest corner of the state, but the story of the "Russellville Girl" has been told in every corner of Kentucky.

The story goes that a young girl was waiting for her lover to come pick her up one night for a dance. It was a terribly stormy and dangerous night as lightning illuminated the sky and rain fell in sheets. She was very anxious about her boyfriend driving in such weather and she stood near the front window of the house, anxiously watching the dark road outside and hoping for some sign of his oncoming headlights. Just then, a bolt of lightning struck the house and somehow passed through the front window. The girl was killed instantly by the lightning.

In a different of the story, passed along to me by a website visitor, the girl was killed because she cursed God for causing it to rain on the night of the dance. She was angry because she would ruin her party dress when she went out into the inclement weather. The curse caused her spirit to be trapped in the glass forever!

Over the years, no one seems able to remember just what this girl's name many have been.... but they didn't have any trouble remembering what she had looked like. By some freak of nature, the lightning created a photographic imprint of the girl on the pane of glass in the front window.

For many years, on every occasion when it rained, the girl's image would appear on the glass. The story became famous and people came from miles around to see the image. No matter how hard the owners cleaned the window, they could not erase the image. As years passed, owners of the house desperately boarded over the window to keep away the curiosity-seekers and more recently, the window has been painted over.

Russellville is located in the southwest portion of the state, a short distance north of the Tennessee border. The house where the girl's image was imprinted on the window is a private residence on the Clarksville Road. It now serves as the residence for the caretaker of Maple Grove Cemetery in Russellville.


by Troy Taylor