Naomi "Omie" Wise: Her Life, Death, and Legend

Naomi Wise was drowned by her lover in the waters of North Carolina’s Deep River in 1807. Her murder has been remembered in dozens of ballad versions throughout the last two centuries. Mistakes, romanticization, and misremembering have been injected into Naomi’s biography over time blurring the line between reality and fiction. Authors Hal E. Pugh and Eleanor Minnock-Pugh, whose family has lived in the Deep River area since the 18th century, are descendants of many people who knew Naomi Wise or were involved in her murder investigation. This is the story of a young woman betrayed and how her death gave way to the folk traditions by which she is remembered today.