Remembering Susan: Susan Sheppard Passes Away

This past Monday (April 19, 2021), the paranormal and art communities were faced with a heart-breaking tragedy. Susan Sheppard --author, poet, astrologer, artist, and creator of the Haunted Parkersburg Ghost Tours-- had passed away.

Susan Sheppard has been one of my biggest paranormal influences since I became familiar with her work in high school. My first interaction with her was while working on a school project.  The topic was West Virginia Tourism, and like the weirdo I was, I chose to do something with ghost tours. Unfortunately, at that time, there wasn't a ton of paranormal tourism and ghost tours going on in West Virginia, lol. I reached out to Susan about her Haunted Parkersburg Ghost Tours, and without hesitation, she sent me pamphlets, information, and a nice little note wishing me luck on the project. What I wouldn't give to have kept that note...

As my own interest and involvement in the paranormal field grew, my respect for Susan grew as well. I was lucky enough to be able to take her ghost tour several times and was so impressed! There's a reason it was voted as one of the best ghost tours in the country. Susan was so knowledgeable about both paranormal phenomena and local history and shared that information in a way only an artist could. Her love for the topic really shined through, and made even the most skeptical tour guest leave with something to ponder. 

Obviously, her most iconic paranormal work, Cry of the Banshee, is a beloved piece of my library, and I have multiple editions of it. I've probably scoured through that book hundreds of times, using it as a resource for blogs such as The Parkersburg Ghost Cat and Haunted Van Winkle House. In fact, I'm pretty sure that most, if not ALL of my blogs dealing with locations in Parkersburg were inspired by Susan's work!

 I also never missed an opportunity to see Susan speak at the annual Mothman Festival. She was a staple at this iconic gathering of paranormal enthusiasts, and always had an interesting topic to discuss. I especially loved her lectures on Indrid Cold and the Woody Derenberger Tapes. It was such a treat to listen to her speak, then go have a chat with her and Rosemary E. Guiley at their side by side booth. Susan was the epitome of class and knowledge, and no matter how busy she was, could always spare the time to answer questions and greet her fans. And, she had plenty of those! She was featured on one of my favorite shows growing up, Scariest Places on Earth (she talked about Lake Shawnee), as well as numerous other paranormal shows and documentaries. She was definitely well known, not only by the West Virginia community, but far beyond. 

Her work in astrology was also known world-wide. She appeared regularly on various television and radio shows as their in-house astrologer, wrote the horoscopes for Seventeen Magazine for a time, and created a beautiful deck of tarot cards that  are still widely used today. 

It wasn't until we became Facebook friends that I was really able to see and appreciate the many facets of Susan Sheppard's life. She was an award-winning poet who constantly supported other authors and poets. She created beautiful pieces of art in a variety of mediums, and enjoyed the work of Frida Kahlo. She was so proud of her daughter, actress Scarlet Sheppard. It was a beautiful glimpse into the life of a beautiful soul. Unfortunately, being connected on social media also allowed me to witness the quick and devastating decline of Susan's health, as she battled an aggressive cancer. Hearing of her passing still came as a shock, however.  

West Virginia's paranormal community has really suffered a loss, but so has the art and poetry communities, as well as the many, many friends, family members, and others who were positively impacted by Susan over the years. I hope she's at peace and that those who loved her can heal from this devastating loss. 

For anyone interested, on Sunday April 25th, starting at 3pm, a New Orleans-style memorial parade will be held in Susan's honor. The walk will start at Bicentennial Park and end at Riverview Cemetery. More information on this event can be found at the links below. 

Susan Sheppard's Obituary

Candice Black's article on Susan's passing in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel

The Ghost Cat Butt of Parkersburg

Susan Sheppard-Haunted Parkersburg

Many years ago, my mom and I went on our first of several walking tours with Haunted Parkersburg's Ghost Tours, owned and operated by renowned researcher, Susan Sheppard. It was a really fun experience, and I learned a lot about the haunted history of Parkersburg, WV. But among the stories of the Silver Run Tunnel, the the Marrtown Banshee, the East End Ghoul, the ghosts of the Riverview Cemetery, and so many others, one tiny story stuck out most to me...

...the apparition of a black cat's hindquarters.

Ghostly cats are nothing too out of the ordinary. I know several people, myself included, who have experienced their beloved feline sticking around long after their bodily death. In fact, Parkersburg itself has several locations haunted by ghost cats, most notably the old Trans-Allegheny Bookstore is said to be home to up to three phantom felines. But, those cats appear...whole.

There's a story from one of the historic residential areas in Parkersburg where a black cat's apparition is seen. The head and front paws are never seen, however.  Only the tail and hindquarters has ever been seen. But why would only the cat's BUTT appear to witnesses?

Source

The house where the half-cat is spotted was built around 1900, and is located right near where the old streetcar system, which operated through the 1940's ran. It's theorized that the poor cat was a pet of the family who lived in the home and that it met an untimely end on the tracks of the streetcar. To me, however, that doesn't fully explain why only the cat's back half is observed.  Even if the poor creature was cut clean in half by a passing streetcar, why would only the back half be left? Where's the front half?  Perhaps it was too badly mangled in the fatal accident...or perhaps there's another house nearby where people are seeing only the head and front paws of what they think is a completely different cat. 

I was pleased to see this lil' tidbit was included in the first edition (2004) of Sheppard's book, Cry of the Banshee.  In the same chapter, its noted that (presumed) living cats seemed drawn to the tours, and whenever a ghost tour was being led around town, numerous black cats would pop up along the route. That struck a chord with me, because when I was a tour guide for Haunted and Historic Guyandotte Tours, that was a running joke with us, as well. We ALWAYS had cats, not always black, though, follow our tour through the village, and occasionally, sit and LISTEN to our stories. On more than one occasion, a tour patron went home with an obvious stray. 

An old folklore belief states that cats protect their humans from harmful spirits---could our little tour assistants have simply been keeping us safe from the ghosts that prowled around town? Or were they themselves, the ghosts? 

*Want more spooky cat stories?  Here's my experiences with Ambrosis, The Ghost Cat*

Mothman Festival 2015 (Day 2)

Saturday at the Mothman Festival was family day for me! Aaron and I took our son Luke for a day of Mothy fun. Luke, who turned six on the Monday following the festival (happy birthday, my boy!), has been to just about every Mothman Festival since he was born and loves it. He always calls Pt. Pleasant "Mothman City" and this year, he was really looking forward to having a Mothman Hotdog from Hillbilly Hotdogs.

It was a warm, sunny day when we arrived about 10:45 am and after a stressful drive around trying to find a parking spot, settled in and immediately went to the food trucks, lol. Unfortunately, Hillbilly Hotdogs must have just been opening up because we got in the fairly long line...which didn't move for at all in 15 minutes. So, we decided to just grab some standard fair fare and go down to the riverfront to eat and catch a little bit of the Mothman Pageant activities. Before settling in, Aaron stopped to get a huge mug of old fashioned soda from Wild Bill's Olde Fashioned Soda Pop Co. For $10, he got a huge collector's mug and a voucher for FREE refills all day long!

As we found our seats, we noticed that there was something going on to our left, not far from the stage and where the pageant judges were set up. There were a LOT of people milling about and a police boat in the river. An ambulance had its lights on and was standing by. Since the pageant kept going on, we really didn't pay too much attention to what was going on. Finishing up our lunch of corn dogs and cheese fries, we then went to do the vendor circuit.

Luke wanted to play some carnival games and won a few prizes and I picked up a few vintage books for less than $2! Luke and Aaron both found some treasures, as well. We checked out everything, and I was really impressed with the variety of art, books, jewelry and other items being sold, plus the array of paranormal speakers and researchers present. One of my absolute favorite booths was the PlushyBoo vendor. Jen, of PlushyBoo, was selling the coolest and cutest plush cryptid/paranormal themed figures in a variety of sizes. I really should have bought one of the three different Mothman styles she had, because by the time we came back on Sunday, they were all gone...but more on that in Sunday's blog, lol. But, if you were like me and missed her, she has an Etsy shop, too, where everything is 20% off this month! Vowing to come back in a little while to make my final purchasing decisions, we decided to drop what we had already accumulated off at the car. On the way back toward downtown, Luke convinced us that he needed to take a horse-drawn wagon ride!

My PlushyBoos

The horse-drawn wagon ride was pretty awesome, but it was a little expensive. For Luke and I to ride together, it was $8, which wouldn't be that bad, except that the ride only lasted about 7-10 minutes and simply went down the street and back. Still, it was something we hadn't tried before and we had resolved to make this year the year we did all the stuff that we usually DIDN'T do during our festival visits. As soon as we got off the wagon, though, Aaron pulled me aside. He had gone back to the riverfront to take advantage of his free soda refill just as they were closing the area. What we had seen going on at the riverfront earlier was finally explained---a man had jumped into the river and never resurfaced.  This must have happened right before we arrived and while we were on the wagon, his body was recovered. After hearing witness testimony and looking through the photos, Carrie and I can't help wondering if the man was the same man we had been spooked by the night before---the descriptions certainly matched up and it might explain why we felt so uneasy in his presence. But, whether or not it was the same man, our prayers and condolences go out to his family and friends, and all those involved who either had to witness the event or took part in the recovery efforts. Here's a short news article on the event: WSAZ

Luke at Navy Poster Museum

After that devastating news, we looked around some more, got our picture taken with Mothman, who happened to come up RIGHT beside Luke, checked out the Ghost Busters and bought Luke a Daphne pin from the Mystery Machine guy. Then we decided to check out the Navy Poster Museum. Aaron had been there last year, but I didn't go in, so I was in for quite a treat. Located where the old Mothman Museum used to be, the Navy Poster Museum is a huge collection covering a huge chunk of time in Naval history.  The lady who runs the museum is also very nice and you could tell how passionate she is about sharing that passion with others. Even Luke really enjoyed it---especially the pin-up girl posters and the puzzle that was thoughtfully laid out on a table with chairs. If you're in the Pt. Pleasant area, definitely make this a stop on your trip and go give 'em a LIKE on Facebook, too!

Immediately following our trip to the museum, we made our way down to the State Theater to hear Rosemary Ellen Guiley's talk on Spiritualism during the Civil War era. We were a bit early, so we caught the end of Susan Sheppard's Indrid Cold presentation. I'm sorry we missed the beginning, as it seemed like an excellent talk, but luckily, it was recorded and can now be found on YouTube! Anyway, I was really excited to see Rosemary this year. We are generally so busy with other things (and having an impatient child along doesn't help) that we rarely get to sit through the speakers. As predicted I really enjoyed Rosemary's presentation. I have to say, if you get the chance to see ANY of the Mothman speakers, definitely take advantage of it! There is no other place that I know of where you can see the caliber of speakers the festival brings in...and for FREE. And, even though the festival sets record numbers of visitors each year, there's still a real family reunion type atmosphere. You have the chance to get up and personal with the special guests and speakers and have a conversation with them, ask them questions, and if you'd like, buy any books/merchandise they're selling. It's just a really great experience.

But, that was the end of our experience for Saturday. By that time, we were all tired and hot and Aaron and I had some birthday party stuff we needed to attend to while Luke spent the night at my mom's, so we concluded our trip. I wasn't disappointed though....because I'd be back the next day!

Mothman Day I
Mothman Day III