Maybelline heiress, Evelyn Williams.
By Lana Pierce
If you’ve been around Hot Springs since the 1980s, chances are you’ve heard stories. Few are more fascinating than the death of Maybelline heiress, Evelyn Williams, who perished in a house fire at her lakeside mansion in 1978.
A six-part podcast, the “Coroner’s Report” revisits this fire, its possible origins, the death of the heiress, and the unlikely man who stood to inherit everything.
The podcast is a deep dive into genealogy, arson, and a hushed story that begins with the firefighters and EMTs who discovered Williams’s body. Compared with official reports, the body, the origin of the fire, and more do not match up with first-hand accounts.
The Maybelline story piqued the interest of Tracey Prather, author, and investigator, who routinely browses Spa City historical pages and social media. “I kept seeing posts about the Maybelline heiress,” she states. “The posts were a little cryptic. I was interested; I dove in.”
I asked Prather to briefly explain where that jumping-off point took her. “Hot Springs becomes a character in the podcast. I remember as a youngster seeing the roller rink owned by Ms. Williams. Opening night when spotlights traversed the Spa City sky like Hollywood. Then, to learn of her demise… I was intrigued.”
Over 40 years later, why are we still intrigued? According to Prather, there’s a moral to be found in the podcast. “I was young, enamored by the lights. Now I’m grown with an 87-year-old mother. This boils down to a story about elder abuse. About financial and physical abuse. And, possibly, about murder for gain.”
To listen to this story as told by the first responders and others, find it on coronersreport.net or visit streaming devices including AmazonMusic, Spotify, and Alexa.
Lana Pierce is a certified Spa City History Junkie and owner of RetroFit.
