Legend holds that White Rock Lake is haunted by a
ghost that some call "The Lady of the Lake."
One version of the story has it that a young man was
driving along West Lawther Drive late one night when
he saw in his headlights the form of a young girl,
standing beside the road with her thumb out. She was
wearing a dripping wet formal gown. The man stopped
to offer her a ride and she accepted. She asked him to
drive her to an address in the Lakewood area of Dallas
and then stared straight ahead, saying nothing more.
Although he was curious about the situation, the man
decided not to pry, since seemed obvious the girl didn't
want to talk.
When they got to the house in Lakewood, the young
man got out of the car and went around to the other
side. When he opened the door for the girl, she wasn't
there. There was only a puddle of water on the seat and
some water on the floorboard.
Thinking the girl had leaped out of the car as soon as it
stopped, without the young man seeing her, he went up
to the house to check. He rang the bell and waited.
After a few minutes an elderly couple came to the door.
When the man explained what had happened and
asked if the girl had gone into the house, the old woman
turned away, crying. The old man opened the door and
came out on to the porch to speak to the man. He told
him that many years earlier, his daughter and her date
had gone to the prom at Woodrow Wilson High
School. After the prom they decided to drive out to
White Rock Lake to "watch the submarine races."
Unfortunately, the girl's date had been drinking. As they
were driving along West Lawther Drive, he lost control
of the car and it plunged into the lake. Miraculously, the
boy got out and managed to swim to shore but his
girlfriend drowned. The girl the man had given a ride to
was her ghost, trying to get home.
The old man said it wasn't the first time this had
happened. In fact, it happened every year on the
anniversary of his daughter's death. Visibly shaken, the
young man went back to his car and drove away. From
that day forward, he stayed away from White Rock
Lake on that particular night!
Here's another version, courtesy of Jennifer Oualline, a 1993
Woodrow Wilson High School graduate:
"One dark and stormy night, a young girl was out with
her boyfriend. They were driving around White Rock
Lake and got into an argument. He stopped the car and
told her to get out. After he sped off in an angry huff,
she was left to walk home all alone in the rain."
"No one really knows what happened next but she
never made it home that night. Some say she went
crazy, screaming out his name. Some say that a stranger
came along and tried to attack her and that in her
attempt to get away, she jumped off one of the piers
and drowned. Others say she was so upset about the
argument with her boyfriend that she killed herself by
jumping into the lake."
"At any rate, the girl was never seen alive again. On
dark and stormy nights, so they say, you may see a
young girl, clothes dripping wet, walking around the
lake. It's even been said that police officers on patrol
stop to talk to her, thinking she's lost."
"One night, a policeman and his partner found her and
asked her where she lived so they could drive her
home. After she told them, she got into the back of the
car and the officers drove her to the address she gave
them. When they got there, they asked her to stay in the
squad car until they made sure everything was okay.
When they knocked on the door of the house, an
elderly lady came to the door. Assuming the lady was
the girl's grandmother, they told her they had found her
granddaughter wandering around the lake and had
brought her home. The elderly lady immediately started
crying and said she didn't have a granddaughter, but
that her daughter had been missing for many years.
"The officers apologized for upsetting the old lady and
went back to their car - but when they got there, the girl
was gone! All that remained was a puddle of water in
the back seat! They searched the area but were unable
to find her again."
"Later, the patrolmen learned the story of the missing
girl and came to the conclusion that they had given a
ride to a ghost!"
"There have been several other sightings of the ghost.
Some say she is white and transparent, others that she
looks just like a real, live girl in dripping wet clothes.
Some say when you try to approach her she disappears
or runs away."
HAVE YOU SEEN
"THE LADY OF THE LAKE?"
If you've got a story that's substantially different from
either one of the above, please let me know. Maybe I'll
add it to this page.
The Lady of White Rock Lake
By Kelton Kupper
I
would like to relate a ghost story that I have heard about
ever since my early school years. It has been told in
different ways; nearly everyone familiar with it has their
own version, although the basic plot is always the same. I
will relate the story as the author Zinita Fowler writes
about it in the book "Ghost Stories Of Old Texas".
White
Rock Lake is a small, picturesque body of water
which used to be almost out in the country on the
northeast side of Dallas. When the story first surfaced,
there were only a few large mansions on the shores of the
lake, and a large country club sitting back from a terraced
lawn that sloped down to the waterfront.
On
bright, moonlight nights, a motorist out past midnight
spies an ethereal figure dressed all in white standing by
the side of the road which winds around the lake as if
needing a ride. The motorist stops, and a lovely young
woman gets into the car.
Some
stories have the girl dressed in the fringes and
bangles of the Roaring Twenties, others in the long and
flowing skirts of the '30s. Some even make her an
ante-bellum lady, clad in hoops and laces of that romantic
period of time.
As
with her clothing, what transpires between driver and
passenger also varies with the storyteller. Some have a
conversation between them. She has been to a dance at
the country club and her suitor, jealous when she flirted
overmuch with another young man, left her to get home
as best she could. Or, on a lonely ride around the lake,
her car broke down and she was unable to get help, etc.,
etc. Other versions say that after the driver finds out
where the lady wants to be dropped off, there is no
talking at all.
After
a short drive, they pull up in front of one of the
beautiful old lakefront homes. When the driver goes
around to open the door to let the girl out, he discovers
that she is gone. The side of the car where she was sitting
is dripping with lake water.
Some
of the stories end with that discovery. Others,
perhaps the more imaginative ones, have the driver going
up to the house to see if he can find out if the girl is all
right. A mournful parent who answers his ring on the bell,
tells him that yes, a young girl answering his description
lived here. She was their beloved daughter, and one year
ago to the night, she was drowned in a boating accident
on the lake.
As
stated, I have heard about this story from friends who
lives around White Rock Lake and while teaching Texas
History, I read the story about " The Lady Of White
Rock Lake" in the book "Ghost Stories Of Old Texas". I
suggest that the readers of Virtual Texan who love "Ghost
Stories" read this book written by the gifted writer Zinita
Fowler.
Kelton
Kupper is a retired Texas history teacher who is
still teaching and extoling the virtues of Texas.
I am still doing research in this one, I will post it as soon as I get
the scoop!