Article
On Monday afternoon, November 18, 1929, a violent confrontation in Morton left 21-year-old Iva Maye Lackey critically injured and fighting for her life in a Lubbock sanitarium.
The stabbing occurred about 4 o’clock in the afternoon in front of the Lackey home on the main street of Morton. Iva, a young mother, was on the front porch with her baby, her sister, and her sister’s baby when Mrs. A. D. Stevens, age 40, came by the house.
According to the statement Iva later gave while lying on the operating table, the trouble began with harsh words about Iva’s child. Mrs. Stevens was the mother of Iva’s former husband, Verner Stevens. Iva and Verner had married in April of 1928 and divorced in April of 1929. Their baby, according to Iva’s mother, was believed to have been the cause of the trouble between the women.
Her strength slowly waning from loss of blood, and while attendants prepared to operate, Iva told her story in a weak voice:
“I was out on the front porch with my baby and sister and her baby when Mrs. Stevens came by. She said something to my sister on the porch and then she said that my baby wasn’t anything to her. I told her I was not talking to her. There was a dog on the porch and I kicked it. She asked me who kicked the dog and I told her I did. With that she declared that dogs always followed dogs. She told me that the baby wasn’t her boy’s that she didn’t know whose it was and that I did not either. She went in the house and called her husband and he gave her a knife. She walked up to me and said ‘Now say what you said awhile ago,’ I told her whatever I had said I meant and she hit me with a knife. My sister, Mrs. Hazel Holloman was with me and we were on the porch of my father’s house. I did not run out in the street after her and I did not dare her to come out of the house.”
Immediately after giving the statement, which she signed, doctors began operating. Examination showed that the blade entered the lower part of her left chest and ranged into the abdomen, puncturing her spleen. She also suffered two slight cuts on her hand and another wound on her left breast. Internal hemorrhaging resulted from the abdominal wound, and surgeons were forced to remove her spleen. Early reports stated that her condition was critical and might prove fatal.
Iva had been brought to Lubbock by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas G. Lackey, and D. J. Norris of Morton. Her mother said she had not witnessed the stabbing. She was in the store next door when Iva came in and said she had been cut. They made her lie down and immediately sent for a doctor. Mr. Lackey was in Littlefield at the time.
Mrs. Stevens was arrested shortly after the attack and charged with assault with intent to murder. Her bond was set at $5,000, and she was later released.