The Enterprise, White Salmon, WA., May 24, 1962, page 1

     The Klickitat County Sheriff's office through Deputy Harry Dawson Wednesday disclosed the suicide death of Mrs. Martha Zimmerman, wife of Vernon Zimmerman, whose farmhouse is about 6 miles northeast of White Salmon on the Snowden Road.
     Deputy Dawson said that Mr. Zimmerman left the ranch from 10 to 11 a.m. Tuesday to go to Hood River. He returned and found his wife in a shed at the ranch. She had apparently hanged herself.
     The county sheriff D.H. Pruitt and Prosecutor Jacobson acting as coroner, worked on the case until about midnight, Deputy Dawson stated. A pathologist from Portland was coming to White Salmon today to aid with the investigation. The body was taken to Gardner's Funeral home here. No date has yet been set for the funeral service.
     A coronors inquest was slated for 7 p.m. last night at the Bingen City Hall.

The Mt. Adams Sun, Bingen, WA., May 31, 1962, page 2

RITES HELD FOR MRS. ZIMMERMAN

     Funeral rites for Mrs. Vern (Martha E.) Zimmerman, 66, Snowden Rt., White Salmon were held at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 26 at Gardners Chapel. The Rev. Fr. John Shaw officiated. Burial was in the Odd Fellows cemetery.
     Bearers were George Yarnell, Harold Allen, Leon Billette, Lewis Jarvis, Tom Arnold, Joe Jaksha and Johnny Mattax.
     Martha E. Tolliver was born Aug. 1, 1895 at Brookings, South Dakota and died May 22, 1962 at her home four miles north of White Salmon.
     She is survived by her widower, Vern Zimmerman, and a daughter, Mrs. Lois Raynolds of Spokane.

The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., May 24, 1962, page 1

SUICIDE SEEN IN DEATH AT WHITE SALMON

     Martha Zimmerman, 67, apparently took her life by hanging at her home north of White Salmon Tuesday, according to a preliminary report of Coroner Alf Jacobsen.
     Mrs. Zimmerman had been in poor health for an extended period and had been under psychiatric care until recently, according to report of her husband and other relatives.
     The husband, Verne Zimmerman, reported that he had gone to Hood River about 10 a.m. Tuesday to attend to a business matter. On his return at about 11 a.m., he discovered the body in an open carport-shed near the house, hanging from a length of rope which had been wound a number of times about the neck. The end of the rope had been similarly loosely wound around a brace attached to one of the roof-supporting posts of the shed.
     After removing the body by loosening the free end of the rope, Zimmerman reported he drove to the home of his daughter, about ¾-mile away to summon help. When he found no one at home he proceeded to the home of his granddaughter, Mrs. Yarnell, who telephoned Deputy Coroner Moz Burles and then returned with her grandfather.
     Zimmerman told authorities his wife had been under treatment of a Portland specialist, and later a doctor at Hood River associated with the specialist until a little over a month ago, when she refused to continue; that she had been "highly agitated" about a week ago, but had seemed quite normal when he left to go to Hood River Tuesday. She had returned to bed before he left, he said, after having had breakfast with him.
     Jacobson indicated a post-mortem to determine the cause of death would be performed, and that an inquest might be held also.
     Mrs. Zimmerman, who married her present husband four years ago after the death of his first wife, is survived by a daughter in Spokane, Mrs. Lois Reynolds, and by several brothers.

The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., May 31, 1962, page 1

SUICIDE THEORY UPHELD BY JURY

     The death of Martha Zimmerman at her home near White Salmon on the Snowden road last Tuesday was self-inflicted, and caused by hanging by the neck, according to the finding of a coroner's jury.
     The jury was impaneled by Coroner Alf Jacobsen in an inquest proceeding Wednesday, at conclusion of an autopsy performed by Dr. William Louis Lehman of Portland. Jury members were Amos Larsen, Floyd Clarence, Robert Brown, Louis Benson, Clarence Johnson and Harold Lewis.
     In his report to the jury, Dr. Lehman left no doubt that the death resulted from suffocation, and that rope burns made by several turns of a rope around the neck were very evident. Other reports of the autopsy substantiated the story told by the dead woman's husband, Verne C. Zimmerman, who has resided in the area of 68 years, and the reports of Deputy Sheriff Harry Dawson and Deputy Coroner Mozart Burles.
     Testimony also was given by Dr. Hubert D. Lewis, of Hood River, a doctor of medicine who had treated Mrs. Zimmerman, and who described her as a victim of chronic depression, result of a mental illness. His description of the nature of this illness characterized it as subject to sudden change of mood and quite possibly prone to self-destruction.

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©  Jeffrey L. Elmer