Story by Deonta Ridley / Contributor Writing
Do you believe ghosts are among us? Do you believe the supernatural is closer than you think? Well, you’re absolutely right.
Believe it or not, there are some places on campus that are on the spooky side, particularly inside Tucker Theatre. Professor Jette Halladay says two ghosts have been known to haunt the building, adding there’s someone who witnessed one of them not too long ago. She talks about Hunter, a lightning designer who helped run the theatre a few years back. She said ever since he was a kid he has had several experiences with the afterlife.
Hallady says one of the ghosts was a professor who died while driving to Nashville years ago.
“When he was here at night, he felt cigarette ashes on his arm,” she explained. He and his best friend Patrick would hear movement. Eventually, they would see a seat go down in the audience as if someone was sitting in it. And then they would smell cigarette smoke. In about an hour, the seat would go back up and the smell would go away. He got a picture in his mind of this man and later on found out that truly it was a professor that uses to work here, but he did die on the way to Nashville.”
She says others claim to have seen him in the building as well.
The second ghost was a girl who would often hang out at the theatre for personal reasons.
“One night, when Hunter was working on a show here and I was working on the same show, he turned and he thought he saw a young woman going up the aisle. Sometimes this young woman would actually touch him. Other time she would do things to make him look at her. And then he would be surprised he looked and then she’d disappear,” Halladay says. “One time, a girl at one of our cast kept feeling like she was being poked. The feeling even went home with her. When she came back, she said ‘tell you ghost girlfriend…’ he said, ‘She’s not my girlfriend!’ and then she got poked again. And so Hunter said, ‘I’m not….she’s not my girlfriend.’ because the ghost girl kinda had a crush on him. We did find out later on that there was a girl who had hung herself there in the theatre.”
So whether you’re skeptic about ghosts or you believe in the paranormal, I hope this story made you think more about what goes on at MTSU after hours.
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This article was published in cooperation with Jennifer Woodard’s Audio & Podcasting course.
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[…] The ghosts of MTSU’s Tucker Theatre […]
Though I have previously heard that Tucker Theater was haunted, I did not know these stories. I had once heard that a portable light set in the center of the stage would move, but the stories mentioned in this article have more substance; the reasons behind these hauntings are tragic, yet the actual hauntings are quite humorous. Considering the age of the campus, it is quite likely that more buildings are haunted. For instance, I have heard stories about a male spirit walking around and moving things in the Womack Lane Apartments. Another is a story of a “governess” in Shardt Hall – she is said to roam the hallways and crunch glass outside of any unruly student’s door. Though I did not have this experience while living in Monohan Hall, I did experience my bed being shaken around 3 a.m. one winter morning.
In a city that was once a battleground, it is believable that there are spirits roaming around outside of campus, as well. Another paranormal experience I have had in Murfreesboro was seeing a figure run out in front of a vehicle downtown one evening, though they did not make it past the headlights as the vehicle continued moving down the road. It’s interesting to think that there is more going on in Murfreesboro than we may be able to see.