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Grave marker still not returned
Published Saturday, June 28, 2008
FERRIDAY — Though it is closer to home than it has been in five years, the headstone from the grave of a woman named Mary Green still hasn’t made it there yet.
The stolen headstone was placed in a Natchez yard on Halloween five years ago, presumably as a prank.
Natchez Police Lt. Tom McGehee searched for the correct location of where the stone belonged for years, and it was after he contacted the Louisiana Department of Vital Statistics that he discovered it belonged in a Ferriday cemetery.
The headstone was transferred to the Ferriday Police in early May, but has since been kept at the police station.
The problem, Chief Margaret Lawrence said, is that no one has stepped forward to claim it.
“We don’t have any way to find out where it ultimately goes,” Lawrence said.
Born in 1900, Green died in 1977.
The only things inscribed on the cement headstone, slightly weatherworn and cracked after 31 years, are Green’s basic biographical information — name and dates of birth and death — and the simple epitaph “Rest in peace.”
Comments
Posted by oldschool (anonymous) on June 28, 2008 at 5:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This was a sick prank. Somebody knows where it goes. Please notify them and let them know where the head stone goes. you don't have to give a name just let it be known
Posted by destiny (anonymous) on June 28, 2008 at 12:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree oldschool. Young people have no respect for the living, much less the dead. This lady deserves to have her headstone returned. She was a person that breathed, probably worked her fingers to the bone, not having modern appliances as we do, Might have worked in the cotton fields to help feed her family, etc. Never will know who she really was, but she deserves her headstone. That's the last final act that can be done for anyone. Someone cared enough to see that her grave was marked. Make a phone call somebody.
Posted by iluvntz2 (anonymous) on June 28, 2008 at 11:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Since they have the date of death, can't the paper just look back around that date for a Mary Green? And what about the Concordia Sentinal, are those records still available? Surely someone has already done this.
Posted by bikerider (anonymous) on June 29, 2008 at 11:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I got it in my back yard just in case i need it
Posted by realdeal1150 (anonymous) on June 29, 2008 at 10:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
How about checking with local funeral homes? Duh! No really if they know it belongs in Concordia Parish seems that finding a family member would be as easy as putting an ad in the local newspapers. Such a pity someone had nothing better to do.
Posted by Sarge (anonymous) on June 29, 2008 at 11:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I can't believe they have just left this ladies headstone sitting around the Ferriday Police Dept. like that! How utterly disrespectful!!!
Gene Allen OWNS a funeral home in Ferriday! Why hasn't he tried to find out which cemetary this lady is buried in so the headstone can be returned to its rightful place? It was determined that she was buried in the Ferriday area! Her family might have even used his funeral home for her service!
Surely he has access to the kind of information needed to locate her family!!!
Oh wait!!! I forgot! You would need to have a heart to care though! Which we all know Gene Allen does not have!!!
He's a useless waste of skin!!!
Posted by linenbreeze (anonymous) on June 30, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It's not a matter of finding where it belongs it a matter of pure disrespectful laziness.
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