Mason Barber

Local History

Miss Miller

A Lady in the Lake Essay

Mrs. Anna Mabel Smith Douglass had lived a tumultuous life up until September 21st,

1933 (The New York Times, 1963). Although she had already died after that fateful day in

September, her life would still be turbulent for the next 30 years. Douglass would spend 30 years

of her death lying at the bottom of the deepest part of Lake Placid. She would live in an

unmarked watery grave for 30 years. Douglass’ death is shrouded in mystery. Although a verdict

of accidental death was issued (The New York Times, 1963), Mrs. Mabel Smith Douglass

committed suicide. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that supports this reasoning. It

will be the responsibility of this article to prove ow her death was not accidental at all, but

purposeful.

The investigations that took place following her disappearance showed that she had been

in ill health and extremely nervous (The New York Times, 1963). The year prior to her death

was a year of combined honor and depression (Ortloff, 1983). Douglass had been a recipient of

multiple awards and honors from such institutions as the New Jersey State Board of Education;

Columbia University; Russel Sage College; and she was named Officier d’Academie by the

French government (Ortloff, 1983). However, in June of 1932, Douglass had a nervous

breakdown and voluntarily committed herself to a private mental hospital called Four Winds in

Westchester County, New York (Ortloff, 1983). Douglass had been under the public eye for such

a length of time that pressure was put on her to be a mold of perfection. This pressure got to her
and this caused the nervous breakdown. Personally, she felt that that she wouldn’t be able to fit

the mold of the perfect pillar of virtue and elegance that society had seen her as. While she was a

patient at the sanitarium, Douglass had suffered a fracture of the upper right arm (The New York

Times, 1963). When the saponified body had been found, a rope had been found around her neck

with an anchor weighing approximately 50 pounds attached (The New York Times, 1963).

Mabel Douglass was in a state of despair on September 21st, 1933. The entire summer,

she had been able to escape her life of responsibility and commitment, but as the summer was

drawing to a close, she was expected to return to New Jersey (Ortloff, 1983). Her life was

catching up to her and she could no longer handle the pressure. Close friends of Mabel and her

daughter Edith were coming for dinner the night of September 21st, and Edith went to town to the

grocer for preparations for the meal (Ortloff, 1983). This was the time that Mabel Smith

Douglass saw a glimmer of opportunity and hope. She took a rope, anchor, and a St. Lawrence

skiff and set out across the lake to escape the life she dreaded returning to. Her suicide was in the

heat of the moment, it was a crime of passion. She hadn’t thought it out, she saw an opportunity

and took it. While out on the lake, near Pulpit Rock, she was spotted by two men on a boat

(Ortloff, 1983). She knew she had to act fast. She took the oars out of the locks, put them under

her seat, and tied the rope around her neck. The rope was then attached to the anchor, and

Douglass threw it in the waters. The anchor dropped to the bottom and Mabel trailed behind.

Douglass had not been allowed to go on the lake in a skiff by herself (Ortloff, 1983). It was

doctors’ orders, that she be accompanied and not go rowing on her own. I believe that her

doctors saw this event unfolding and tried to prevent it.

Anna Mabel Smith was a great woman. She was a smart woman. Most of all, she was

human. She felt that her only escape from her world of academia and virtue was death. It was the
norm of the times to keep personal business, personal. It is because of this, that Mabel’s death

was ruled as accidental. To keep her life private and the family out of the public eye, her death

was “accidental.” Her entire life had been shrouded in death, suicide was not new in her family.

Although Mabel’s death was awful and should not have happened, her life post-mortem was

inspiring. The institution for which she was a dean of was renamed after her, her body was a

medical miracle (the saponification of it, especially in the waters of Lake Placid), and how she is

still prevalent as well as relevant in today’s discussions.

Works Cited
Ortloff, G. C. (1983). A Lady in the Lake. Lake Placid: With Pipe and Book.
The New York Times. (1963, September 27). Woman Drowned in Lake Placid Identified as Ex-
Douglass Dean. The New York Times.