Etta Rebecca White Ratcliff

October 24, 1880

May 28, 1918

Etta Ratcliff is buried next to one of the broad avenues in the Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Her gravestone features a carved angel—not unusual except the face of the angel is modeled after Etta herself. 

Etta was a mother of five and wife to William Emmet Ratcliff.  Ratcliff was a successful knitting factory owner.  Etta was a very young 37 years old when she died of a cerebral hemorrhage.  After her death, Ratcliff ordered a statue to be carved in her likeness. 

The statue, made of marble was carved in Italy.  During the shipment to America, the ship carrying the angel sank with Etta’s statue sinking with it.  Later it was recovered and placed where it now stands in the cemetery.

Maybe because of Etta’s angelic appearance and the resurrection of the statue itself from the bottom of the Atlantic, stories popped up with people claiming that as they walk past the angel, not only Etta’s eyes follow them, but some say her head moves following them.  Upon closer inspection of the statue, the neck has a crack, which some say is the reason the angel’s head can move about. There are claims that she has also been known to flutter her wings!

According to a WTVD broadcast, which aired Tuesday July 30, 2019, Oakwood Cemetery Executive Director Robin Simonton responded to the claims, “It’s … a little unsettling for us in a cemetery to see a statue that looks like a person.  It lends itself to urban legend.”

Urban legend or not, Etta’s angel watches over the passersby.