THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Several buildings at Cottey College are associated with longstanding campus ghost stories. Students have reported apparitions, footsteps, unexplained voices, and mysterious activity in residence halls.
Cottey College, founded by Virginia Alice Cottey Stockard in 1884, has a piano-playing ghost. The spirit is thought to be that of Vera Neitzert, a student from 1920 who perished when her clothes caught fire while she was cooking candy. Her ghost has been seen in Main Hall and the former Rosemary Hall. Another Cottey spirit who may be the piano player is Madame Blitz, a turn-of-the-century music department head who drank carbolic acid and died in her home across the street.