Park Theater Ghost Light Tours
LISA HOBBS – News Editor
Warren County Historian Jimmy Haley will offer six sessions over three days, an event named Park Theater Ghost Light Tours.
“The tour will include more than the Park,” he stated. “We will start out at the Park, but we are going to do a street tour and go down to the Old City Cemetery, not Riverside.”
In the past, Haley offered historic tours through Riverside Cemetery offering historic tales of interesting residents who now reside there.
Haley continued, “We are going to go down Main Street, and I’ll tell stories. One will be the shooting of Dr. Ramsey in front of the library and his death. Then, the Billy Gibbs murder at the Bratchers because my dad’s restaurant was there and he ate there right after he killed them.”
The 1955 Bratcher Family Murders is one of Tennessee’s most infamous true crime cases. On March 23 of that year, four members of the Bratcher family were found dead on their farm in McMinnville: Henry, Vassie Fields, Lily May and Charlotte Ann Bratcher. Billy Thomas Gibbs was arrested and executed on May 6, 1957, in Davidson County.
Haley will continue to The Black House, the oldest remaining house in McMinnville that is named after Dr. Thomas Black, with its history. Then, turning down South High Street with other interesting stories being told until the group gets to the Old City Cemetery, which was established in 1813 and has stories of its own.
As far as the Park, it will include a behind-the-scenes look and interesting stories told within it; those will be about Cowan Oldham, how he was a prankster in life and could be haunting the facility still today. The celebrated owner and showman died in 1969 in the theater that he loved and operated for nearly 30 years.
Ghost Light Tours will be given on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., and on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $6 each and include admission and light refreshments. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Heritage Alliance of McMinnville-Warren County.
Tickets available on Park Theater’s website.
Vintage photo of Main Street and Park Theater provided by Jimmy Haley.