Essie Dunbar was pronounced dead after suffering an epileptic seizure. Her sister wanted to see her for the very last time.
When her coffin was opened her dead sister sat up and smiled everywhere. The spectacle caused such a shock that three people who were involved in the excavation fell backwards into the pit and one of them suffered broken ribs. Many years after this incident that took place in the town of Elko, South Carolina in 1915, Essie's friends considered her a "zombie back from the dead"