OK, searching further with Mac software, I did a little better. Not all of these sources are equally credible, but this link to the announcement of his attaining the office of Grand Dragon seems conclusive:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...Q4nAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RwMGAAAAIBAJ&pg=7182,6238795
I don't see anything at all linking Nathan Bedford Forrest III (his great-grandson, killed inWWII) with the Klan, so I think that's a case of confusion between the two men.
I also found this info on a genealogy website (roots web/ancestry), but don't have the ability to provide direct links to the Georgia papers she references, but perhaps someone else with better access can verify the accuracy of her transcriptions:
Per Marie Palmer: Drowned in Savannah.
1/8/2001: From Chriss Perkins:
From the records of Eloise Davis Perkins:
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Ida Elizabeth Thames drowned in the Savannah River as the result of a boating accident.
Savannah Morning News, Monday, 05 Sep 1927 [Labor Day]
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(Beginning of column one, page 14)
TWO PERISH IN SWIMMING
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Mrs. Kyle Ramsey ad K. A. Watson Drown in Inlet
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OFF ST. CATHERINE'S
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Caught in a Strong Ebb Tide Sunday Afternoon
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BODIES WASHED ASHORE
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Valiant Efforts at Resuce Prove Unavailing
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Caught in the relentless ebb-tide undertow at the northeast point of St. Catherines Island yesterday afternoon at about 3 o'clock, K. E. Watson of Register and Mrs. Ida Thames Ramsey, wife of Kyle Ramsey of Atlanta, were swept under the surface and drowned.
All attempts to resuscitate them failed. The two were members of a party which had just started a week-end cruise. The others in the group were Gen. Nathan B. Forrest of Atlanta, grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan; Mrs. Forrest and their two little girls; T. J. McKinnon, Atlanta, supervisor of industrial plants of the Ku Klux Klan; Chief of Staff Watson to the grand dragon; Kyle Ramsey, husband of the drowned woman, imperial klaliff of the fraternal organization of the Ku Klux Klan. Several of them were in danger of being drowned by the surging current but managed to reach shore safely.
At the end of St. Catherines Island, where the drowning occurred, the water rushed out to sea upon the ebbing tide with a pace that cannot be resisted even by the strongest of swimmers. The week-end party, using the "Seagull," the launch of Chief John H. Monroe of the Savannah fire department, had anchored about a mile off shore and had gotten into a rowboat and landed on the beach. While they were making a landing another launch, containing Charles Francis Coe of New York, Nelson T. Stephens of the Board of Trade, Andrew Aprea and H. Wallace Sipple, was about five miles out to sea. They saw the other boat and headed toward the land, thinking that Chief Monroe was in the group. However, upon hailing the colored tender of the "Seagull," they learned that a group of Chief Monroe's friends were using the boat.
The other launch then headed out to sea again. As the boat passed through the high rolling waves, the people bathing could be seen plainly. They were about half a mile from the dangerous point at the time and apparently all were having an enjoyable time. In the meantime, the boat containing Mr. Sipple and his friends, Mr. Coe, Mr. Stephens and Mr. Aprea, had been out about nine or ten miles in the ocean and was returning, when the colored man aboard Chief Monroe's boat could be seen standing on the vessel, wildly waving a white object, giving a distress signal. The course of the other boat was immediately changed and when in hailing distance, the colored man shouted to the crew of the moving launch that all of the party was drowned. Scanning the beach, none of the people on the beach could be seen.
While the other men on the boat prepared to launch the row-boat to come to the beach, Mr. Sipple dove into the sea and swam to the beach, a distance of approximately a mile. Mr. Sipple was afraid that the little bateau could not weather the high waves so took the quickest means of reaching the people in distress. Around the point he found the two drowned people, their bodies having been washed ashore by the waves. Mr. Watson made a valiant but ineffective effort to save Mrs. Ramsey before he met death himself. Using Mr. Sipple's arched-body as a support, as much water as possible was removed from the two bodies and artificial respiration was then begun, with everyone on the party that was able to take part, giving assistance.
After an extended period of time, life was pronounced extinct and the saddened people began the homeward trip. The bodies of Mrs. Ramsey and Mr. Watson were taken in the launch with the relief group and brought to Savannah.
The story of the tragedy as told by M. O. Dunning, port collector, revealed that it was only by a stroke of fortune that the entire party was not drowned in the undertow that swept Mrs. Ramsey and Mr. Watson to their death.
Shortly after 3 o'clock the yacht anchored off St. Catherine's inlet, and the party rowed to shore in a skiff to go in swimming, Mr. Dunning said. After they had been bathing a few minutes a strong undertow engulfed the swimmers, and while successful efforts were being made to save the two little children of General and Mrs. Forrest, Mrs. Ramsey and Mr. Watson were carried out to sea.
Aid was rushed to them as soon as possible, but it was found to be too late. They had collapsed before they could be rescued, and when brought to shore life was extinct. Several hours of artificial respiration failed to restore the vital spark.
During the few minutes that the undertow was sweeping over the party it seemed as though they would all suffer a death by drowning, Mr. Dunning said. Only a fierce battle against the sea and by giving each other aid were any able to be saved, it was said.
***
Savannah Morning News, Tuesday, 06 Sep 1927
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(Lower section of column two, page 5)
TO BURY VICTIMS AT THEIR HOMES
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Mrs. Ida Ramsey and K. E. Watson Were Drowned
Sent to their respective homes for funeral and interment, the body of Mrs. Ida Thomas [sic] Ramsey of Atlanta, and that f Karl E. Watson, of Register, left Savannah yesterday. The two were drowned off St. Catherine's Isalnd on Sunday afternoon, following a swimming party, which came to an end when the dangerous undercurrents swept Mrs. Ramsey and Mr. Watson to their deaths.
The body of Mrs. Ramsey left Savannah last night at 9 o'clock over the Central of Georgia Railway, going to Atlanta, while the body of Mr. Watson was sent by Sipple Brothers hearse to his home. Mrs. Ramsey was the wife of Kyle Ramsey, imperial klaliff of the national organization of Ku Klux Klan. Besides her husband she is survived by her father, William Thames, Nicholson, Miss.; two sisters, Mrs. Herman Perkins, Holapaw, Fla., and Miss Lillie Thomas [sic] of Taylortown, Miss.; and one brother, William E. Thames, of Picayune, Miss. Funeral services are to be conducted in Atlanta by Rev. Brewer, with interment at the Beechhead Cemetery.
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Shock to His Friends
Statesboro, Ga., Sept. 5. - The sad and untimely death of Karl E. Watson who drowned yesterday afternoon at St. Catherine's Island near Savannah in his attempt to save the life of a woman from Atlanta, who was a member of the week-end cruise of a party of friends, an account of which reached this city at daylight this morning through the Morning News, was a shock to this community.
Mr. Watson was a resident of Register, Bulloch county, but for many years resided in this city and numbered his friends by his acquaintances here. At one time he was the proprietor of a drug store in this city, and married Miss Frankie Register, daughter of the late F. P. Register, and the family later moved to the Bulloch county town of that name. For a number of years Mr. Watson was a progressive merchant of Register, eventually selling out and entering into other vocations. He is survived by his widow and ten children.
Mr. Watson was prominent in many respects. He was one of the prime movers in the installation of pure swine in Bulloch county and has always taken a leading part in the Bulloch county fair, being one of its officers and largest exhibtors.
The funeral arrangements have not been perfected, but according to the Olliff Funeral Home, who went to Savannah to bring the body back to his home, the interment will be in Lott's Creek cemetery in the family burying ground.
[additional info on this site, not verified]
Nathan Bedford Forrest II: Born 1872 in Oxford, Miss. Married Mattie Patton of Memphis, Tenn.
He lived for many years in Memphis, Tenn. where he was connected with the Equitable Life Insurance
Co. He had also been in business with his father as a railroad and levee contractor. He left Memphis about 1919 and made his home in Atlanta. He also spent 5 years in Alaska as a miner and prospector.
For a number of years he had taken an active interest in the Ku Klux Klan, which had it's headquarters in Atlanta. At the time of his death he held the Honorary position of Imperial Klokann, an office in the national organization. He also held the position as Grand Dragon of Georgia.
He died March 13, 1931 in White Springs, Florida of a paralytic stroke.
He had one son Nathan Bedford Forrest III [05 Apr 1905 - 13 Jun 1942, WWII], and three daughters, Nary Helen, (sic) Nandy and Martha.
Source: Genealogy Gateway: Forrest Family Page. Descendants of Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest
http://members.aol.com/harley1369/nbf.html
Other sources include:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Bedford_Forrest_II
http://books.google.com/books?
http://stonemountain.com/history
id=tY0p3gZhMTkC&pg=PA187&lpg=PA187&dq=nathan+forrest+grandson+grand+dragon&source=bl&ots=mYEVO-6SJz&sig=JsDNJWU-LTuivJa2SBnKDRca0ec&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ptEjUv3gK4aC9gTC9YCwCw&sqi=2&ved=0CF8Q6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=nathan%20forrest%20grandson%20grand%20dragon&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=DJ...=nathan forrest grandson grand dragon&f=false
Also, from CSAPartisan.com:
Nathan Bedford Forrest, II, the General's grandson, moved to Atlanta and became the assistant of William J. Simmons, leader of the neo-Klan that became very active in Georgia during the Klan's twentieth-century rebirth. He served as the grand dragon of the Georgia Klan and as the organization's national secretary for five years.
Nathan Bedford Forrest, III, an Army Air Corps Brigadier General, commanded twenty-six B-17 aircraft. In a 1943 bombing run over Kiel, Germany, his plane was shot down, and he became the first American general to die in combat in the European theatre in World War II. With three daughters, he became the final male Forrest in his great-grandfather's direct line.