I was very young when I first heard it, as we'd heard rumors about something being "wrong" about the house. We thought it was an actual person that had somehow broken into the house or something.
The "lady" was vulgar, and would tell my sweet grandmom to "Get the fuck out of my house!" And would call her horrible names when she was ourdered out in the name of Jesus.
But at least she was familiar. It was the tall thing that came up and down the stairs almost every night that terrified us. There were clear footfalls on the creaky wood of the steps. Sometimes it would come halfway up and then go back down.
Other times it would s-l-o-wl-y walk all the way up and just stand there breathing in the hallway light behind the curtains. (we didn't have room doors, only curtains in each doorway, so you can imagine the fear).
Anybody that doubted us, we invited their ass over to spend the night. That shut a helluva lot of people up.
But it never harmed us, and someone told me that it may have been a "trickster spirit" who's intent was to terrorize.
It worked.