The Military Marker of Burl "Jaybird" Coleman

The Military Marker of Burl "Jaybird" Coleman

Produced by the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund

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The Unmarked Grave of Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith, whose incredible renditions of the blues still echo through the annals of music in the ears and voices of living artists, died in a car accident on Highway 61 outside Clarksdale, Mississippi. She was buried Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Mount Lawn Cemetery in October 1937. Though 30,000 people attended her massive funeral, only blades of grass marked her grave for thirty-three years, because her family didn't have enough money to buy a tombstone.

In July 1970, a local woman, Barbara Muldrow, called The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Action Line after reading a couple of articles about the blues singer in the newspaper. “I knew she never had a gravestone,” Muldrow informed, and “I was disturbed at a person of her status going unnoticed.” Action Line subsequently solicited donations for the tombstone from rock singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, a registered nurse who met Bessie at the old Lincoln Theater at Broad and Lombard streets in the 1930s. Each of the donors covered half of the costs. Now a leader in the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, Green had once performed at the theater in a talent show, after which Bessie Smith advised that she stay in school, "because you can't carry a note.” Green considered the recording artist "an expert [and] the type you didn't get angry with, you just listened to." She took her advice and stayed in school.

An estimated fifty people turned out at the cemetery for an unveiling of a grey-black stone on Grave No. 3, Range 12, Lot 20, Section C. The stone's inscription contained the words, "The Greatest American Blues Singer Will Never Stop Singing," which was composed by jazz historian John Hammond, who, as a young recording engineer with Columbia Studios, did a record session with Bessie Smith. Hammond and Green both attended the service, as did John T. Brown Jr., her accompanist during the last five years of her life.

She was a big talent—but not so big when she started singing in a minstrel show in Chattanooga, Tenn., at age 13. Her first big break in show business came in 1917 when she played the Paradise Club in Atlantic City, afterward hitting Philadelphia for the first time in a club known as the Madhouse at 11th and Poplar. She settled here in 1918. On Feb. 27, 1923, she cut her first recording, “Down-hearted Blues,” and it was a smash hit. By the end of the first year as a recording artist, Bessie had sold more than 2 million records. Her career skyrocketed in the 20s when she reportedly was earning $2500 a week and recording such songs as "Gimme a Pigfoot," "Nobody Knows You" and "Money Blues."

Robert Johnson's Cenotaph in Morgan City Saved a Church, Memorialized a Musician, and Never Claimed to Mark a Grave

In 1991, a bank in Greenwood, Mississippi had a lien against the Mt. Zion MB Church in Morgan City, because some deacons used the deed to get a loan to purchase several ornate benches, or pews. At the same time, Mt. Zion Memorial Fund founder Skip Henderson was trying to locate the grave of Robert Johnson, and he learned that it very well might have been at Mt. Zion MB Church in Morgan City. He managed to get Columbia Records to donate $17,000 to save the church from foreclosure, and get Hartley Peavey to donate brand new PA systems to 3 churches, Mt. Zion, another potential grave location at Payne Chapel, and New Jerusalem Church in Holly Ridge, where the grave of Charley Patton was located. He knew that Johnson's remains probably weren't at the gravesite, so he erected a cenotaph (memorial to someone buried elsewhere) instead of a headstone. It contains no birth/death dates, but the stone obelisk was a nice memorial. (Click her to view it)

Greenwood Commonwealth, Jan 1991. 

Despite all the gifts showering down on the black churches, Steve LaVere urged Skip to abandon this endeavor and not memorialize Johnson in case some future evidence came up that pinpointed his exact gravesite of Johnson. He did not abandon the cenotaph or the churches, however. LaVere then then sued him so he changed our name from Mt. Zion/Robert Johnson Memorial Fund to simply the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund. The lawsuit, therefore, was moot and abandoned. Skip erected nine more memorials and saved several; abandoned cemeteries over the next ten years.

Evidence did arise a decade later that Johnson was most likely buried in a cemetery north of Greenwood. A marker was erected at the church despite the protests of several members of the congregation, which received no maintenance fees, a standard practice on almost all cemeteries.. Our namesake church , however, did not fall into the hands of the bank, and it still sits at the corner of a massive cotton field outside Morgan City. Rev. Ratliff, who worked with Skip on the project, recently celebrated his 33rd year at the church in November. 

Yet, folks tell me all the time how the cenotaph in Morgan City is wrong. A cenotaph (memorial to someone buried elsewhere) can't be wrong. Considering all the good it did for the historic church and its congregation, erecting that monument is indeed one of the most clever and "rightest" campaigns all-time in blues commemoration. Robert Johnson never had three headstones. But, hey, some folks will keep telling us we're wrong. We will continue to do what's right.

Greenwood Commonwealth, Sep 2005, p.1 of 3.

'Evil' Man's Family Gives Him the Obit He Deserved

There’s a widespread misconception that everyone who dies is entitled to a flattering postmortem; that their lives must necessarily be cast in a stage-ready glow that buffs away negatives and politely misremembers bad people as good. “Don’t speak ill of the dead,” our grandmothers chide—but what if the dead deserve it?

Leslie Ray Charping passed away in Galveston, Texas, last month at the age of 74, succumbing finally to a years-long battle with cancer. According to an obituary written by his family, which received so much attention that it crashed the Carnes Funeral Home website, Charping was a father, husband and enormous dick.

“Leslie’s life served no other obvious purpose, he did not contribute to society or serve his community and he possessed no redeeming qualities besides quick whited [sic] sarcasm which was amusing during his sober days,” it reads. “With Leslie’s passing he will be missed only for what he never did; being a loving husband, father and good friend.” 

Fair enough! The Houston Chronicle reports that Charping was convicted of a raft of ugly offenses over the years, including an assault in 1979 and another in 2008, when he poured hot liquid on his wife. In 2009, he violated a restraining order when he threatened to kill a female relative. The obit goes on:

“At a young age, Leslie quickly became a model example of bad parenting combined with mental illness and a complete commitment to drinking, drugs, womanizing and being generally offensive. 

“He leaves behind 2 relieved children; a son Leslie Roy Charping and daughter, Shiela Smith along with six grandchildren and countless other victims including an ex-wife, relatives, friends, neighbors, doctors, nurses and random strangers.”

His family adds that they have no intention of holding a funeral. Instead, they wrote that they plan to have him cremated, with his remains kept in their barn until the donkey’s wood shavings run out.

“Leslie’s passing proves that evil does in fact die,” the obituary said, “and hopefully marks a time of healing and safety for all.”

Congratulations to Leslie’s family for their loss.

The initial version of the story failed to include a response from Leslie’s daughter.  Here it is:

“I wrote my father’s obituary. I loved my father because he was my father and his passing would not have been any less difficult had he been a good father. As someone that ‘hated a liar’, I believe even he would have appreciated the honesty. I apologize to anyone that my father hurt and I felt it would have been offensive to portray him as anything other than who he was. This obituary was intended to help bring closure because not talking about domestic violence doesn’t make it go away! 

“Thank you to those that have offered sincere condolences, understanding and prayers for our family, your words bring comfort. I am happy for those that simply do not understand, this means you had good parent(s) — please treasure what you have. 

“Although I appreciate everyone’s concern, it would have been much more appreciated at any time during my childhood. For those being cruel, please remember that you now resemble my father and I would be more than happy to pen your obituary as well.”

By Lauren Evans - lauren.evans@jezebel.com
Weekend writer at Jezebel