Welcome To The Conner Family Cemetery

The Final Chapter
See Through The Hollow (Jan.) for part one

   
Marching in to the cemetery. See that last guy at the end of the line? That's my husband who was whispering to our brother in law, "For God's sake don't tell them I am from Chicago"!

Please Come In

    Before

                                                     

After

 The Twenty One Gun Salute

A prayer was said, a poem was read and we raised our glasses in a toast. The job was finally finished.

Teamwork divides the task and doubles the success (unknown)

Thank you Nancy, Suzanne, Ramona, Sarah, The Sons of the Confederacy, golf buddy Carl, our husband's , the family members who made donations, and The State of Mississippi........Janey

         

Please leave your muskets at the door! part nine

  continued.. (scroll to Through The Hollow for part one)

 Letters went out in the Fall of '02. It was finally time for  the cemetery dedication and celebration . We were to meet at the town's library to get acquainted and have a light lunch before caravaning to the cemetery. Several of us brought food to share and ordered sandwich trays locally. I had to giggle when  we went in search of parsley to dress up the sandwich trays. The only green things at the  local super market  were lettuce, green beans, cabbage and collard greens, ...Seems parsley was not a local staple!. Please don't let me ruffle your feathers with my Mississippi comments. They are all done with tongue in cheek. It is a beautiful state with warm and friendly people. Besides, I obviously came from there.

We were thrilled to have twenty five descendants of  the Conner family in attendance ,and  amazed that the last  surviving grandchild of the Conner's was able to make the trip.

No, the guys pictured above  are not Conner's They are members of the local chapter of the Sons of the Confederacy, who by now had become our heroes! (and yes they were armed). Come back tomorrow and I'll finally show you the cemetery....and those guns!

Saved by the Mysterious Grave part eight

This cemetery saga started several posts back....see Through the Hollow  for part one

You've got to be kidding! What do you mean we have to pay for the Historical Marker ourselves?! This after having to furnish over seventy pages of documents documenting every single grave in that cemetery! Why one grave, even Romona couldn't figure his connection to the family. That beautiful sign is going to look awfully silly in front of what is still a waste land of a cemetery. Yes, we have donations, Suzanne, Nancy and Sarah had been busily collecting them; but added all together, they just barely cover the cost of the sign. How could we have been so naive to think we could make this happen?

Enter The Sons of the Confederacy. An organization of men ,who for some reason like to dress up in Confederate War Uniforms and reenact battles from a war that ended almost 150 years ago. We had at least four Confederate soldiers buried in our cemetery but didn't realize we had a fifth. James S. Baines, that unknown person, that last grave way back there by the fence was not only a confederate soldier, but for some reason ,was one that was held up as a hero by the local Sons of the Confederacy Chapter. Enough of a hero that they offered to make our cemetery restoration their club project for the year .Listen carefully , can you hear that? That's us whistling Dixie!

Come back tomorrow for the dedication. Straight out of Gone With The Wind! Well, almost:)

Welfare, Fist Fights and Golf part seven

Continued from yesterday...


The rag tag cemetery restoration committee, which consisted of two internet cousins and three sisters had devised a plan!

We would do a mail out to everyone we were kin to (southern for related to) or even thought we were related to, and solicit donations. I can tell you that several of the folks that received that plea (especially those in Miss.) must have thought we were a bunch of snake oil salesmen, by the way the donations were trickling in. Still determined, we contacted the Miss. Dept. of Archives and History to see if there were any state funds for the care of abandoned cemeteries. Found out that that was left up to the individual counties. Having asked a local what the industry was around there ? ..and gotten the reply "Government Checks" I wasn't too hopeful.

In the mean time, good ole Ramona had discovered that Boley had been a charter member of the local Masonic Lodge and had served twice as Worshipful Master. Surely they would help us! ! Our hopes were dashed when they discovered that Boley had been expelled for beating the hell out of the newly elected Worshipful Master. Hmmm ...back to the drawing board.

Golf, my husband plays weekly, and has played with the same foursome for thirty odd years (only recently losing one  to old age). Anyway, golf buddy Carl told my husband that his wife was involved in a similar project in would you believe it?...the state of MISSISSIPPI! He said he had information on how we could get our cemetery declared a state HISTORICAL SIGHT! Oh this could be our hole in one! If we could accomplish this, the state would have to care for it! There was our light ! .....the saga continues....

Sparkle on the Radar part six

 Sixth in the series.(scroll to: Through the Hollow for part 1)
 

Yes, folks that is a sweet potato. You see, while we had been traipsing around that muddy cemetery in Mississippi, long lost cousin Romona had been doing her homework. Ramona, I forgot to mention is one heck of a genealogy researcher; why she even  had this family  of ours going all the way back to receiving the Fleur de Lis  from the King of France .In more recent times, she seems to have us  related to THE SWEET POTATO QUEEN. (for real)! If you are not familiar with the Sweet Potato Queen you may want to stop now and Google her. Ramona tells us that not only is  Boley Conner  her ggrandfather too..but several other members of her family are buried in "our" cemetery. A best selling author and sought after speaker the SPQ  had even made appearances on national  talk shows like Good morning America. Surely she would help us with this  project...if not fund it! Wrong...Have you ever tried to get a hold of a celebrity or a famous person? It's almost as hard as trying to get  a hold of a relative who has just won the lottery. I probably  would have had   better luck contacting John Grishom who, by the way, is also from Mississippi.

Surprisingly, the  author of the Sweet Potato Queen books was not my light at the end of the tunnel. He was teeing up on a Texas golf course....to be continued