Ghostly Apparition is Final Legacy of Woman's One Day Television Career

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Her name was Contessa DeMoure. She was the first news woman to appear on television in Nebraska. Her career lasted all of one day, beginning and ending on Tuesday, March 31, 1959. After celebrating her appearance with a late dinner with friends in Omaha, DeMoure ventured out for a long walk home alone. It was something she wouldn't normally do, but because the energy of her first day was still pulsating through her body, she thought the walk would do her good. DeMoure was never seen again...at least not in a human state. Some say they saw a struggle with a woman that fit her description down by the river. Others claim they saw her picked up by a passing car that ultimately headed out of town. Whatever happened, DeMoure was pronounced missing and eventually presumed dead by authorities. But at the news station where her single day's pay added up to $9.25, a recurring event has reportedly taken place every 5-6 years since that fateful night. Back in the prop room which was originally designed to hold set pieces and props for other shows, DeMoure's ghostly apparition has made itself visible to a custodian, a set designer, a news reporter, a salesman and many other workers down through the years. Most of them reported seeing DeMoure in a trance-like state, sitting on a coffin as if trying to rise above the deathly symbol beneath. More than one have said they even heard her speaking the same news stories that would have been read back in March of '59. And although the news station eventually pulled up stakes and moved to a different facility, the new owner's of a marketing agency that took up residence have also given the same ghostly reports of seeing DeMoure atop her coffin. But there's one more twist to the spooky tale -- about ten years ago the last reported sighting of DeMoure took place. It was reported by a free lance photographer who had gone into the old prop room (now a supply area), and turned as white as DeMoure herself when she saw the figure, once again as if reading the news -- but this time, the final time, DeMoure was heard reading her own obituary, telling of the ghastly assault she experienced some 55 years earlier. Perhaps the reality of her own death finally set in for DeMoure. Perhaps now she is truly, resting in peace. There have been no additional sightings since, and the old building where DeMoure gave her single day's work is slated to be torn down early next year.