NATCHEZ — Standing in the dim moonlight James Hopkins looks pretty good — even at 120 years old.

On Saturday, Hopkins — portrayed by Sam Jones, was one of the first attractions at the Ninth Annual Angels on the Bluff Cemetery Tour.

On the tour, visitors snake through the cemetery and make stops along the way to hear from actors portraying some of the cemetery’s most celebrated residents.

Hopkins, who spent some of his last days in Ferriday, lived to be 120.

“To say he was an interesting guy is an understatement,” Jones said.

To a crowd of chilled guests Jones told the story of how Hopkins, a Civil War veteran, didn’t apply for his war pension until he was 107.

After collecting the pension for years, it was stopped when Hopkins’ status as a veteran was challenged.

Jones said Hopkins had to appear before a Louisiana pension board to argue his case in order to continue receive his pension.

And even though Hopkins was 114 at the time, Jones said he was able to rattle off the name of every one of his superiors and each battle he fought in.

In Jones’ portrayal of Hopkins, Jones rattles off the same lengthy list, without hesitation.

“That was the hard part,” Jones said of remembering the lengthy list of names.

Across the cemetery John B. Maxwell and Anne Wilkins, played by husband and wife Rusty and Beverly Jenkins, sat waiting for the crowd of tourists to make it to their surreal scene.

The setting in the cemetery was meant to mimic a party scene at a local plantation.

Rusty Jenkins said the story they reenacted showed how Maxwell and Wilkins part ways after Wilkins finds out Maxwell was sworn to another for marriage at a young age.

“He was kind of a jerk,” Beverly Jenkins said.

The next day when Maxwell was leaving town he slipped on a gangplank and drowned in the Mississippi River.

“She never married again,” Beverly said. “She was that in love with him.”

And it’s Rusty’s love of the cemetery that keeps him acting in the event year after year.

He said the city’s cemetery is something he feels passionately about, and wants to see it preserved and maintained.

“This is a way to give something to the community,” he said.

Don Estes, former cemetery director, said the cemetery tour is the biggest fundraiser of the year for Natchez City Cemetery.

“It’s extremely important,” he said. “And this might be the best year ever.”

Estes said the caliber of actors, and stories, made this year’s event unforgettable.

And Estes said he only sees the event improving with time.

“And we’ll never run out of stories,” he said looking at the grave markers.