Author Archives: gravelyspeaking

I’ll be volunteering as a tour guide this coming Saturday supporting my local cemetery and historical center.

ZEFTA LOYAL SEPTEMBER 23, 1916 – APRIL 26, 1996 Beloved Mother of Dolly and Gina Original Loyal Repensky Troupe The Showmen’s Rest section of the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Hugo, Oklahoma, is the final resting place for some of the … Continue reading →

Mud Show Elephant Man TERRY DUANE FENNE Feb. 10, 1950 – June 14, 2006 Have A Seat On Me It seems that it was more common to run off to join the circus than one might have thought.  Barely a … Continue reading →

Grace Sykes McIntosh McFarland July 25, 1915, Walkerville, Essex, Ontario, Canada October 28, 2016, Hugo, Choctaw County, Oklahoma Buried Showman’s Rest, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Hugo, Oklahoma I am at the age where people don’t notice me—they just look past the … Continue reading →

Jack Bonham Moore January 18, 1919, Marshall, Texas March 15, 1969, Hugo Oklahoma The Big Top-shaped gray granite monument in the Showmen’s Rest section of the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Hugo, Oklahoma, commemorates the grave of the Carson and Barnes … Continue reading →

On February 19, 1913, a small group of devoted circus performers gathered at the Saratoga Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, to form the Showmen’s League of America.  The club’s first order of business was to elect superstar Wild West showman Buffalo … Continue reading →

DON KNOTTS 1924 – 2006 He saw the poignancy in people’s pride and pain and turned it into something hilarious and endearing. Recently while driving the Route 66 leg from St. Louis to Santa Monica, I took a side trip … Continue reading →

IN Memory of ELDRIDGE PAULEY Who was Born 10th March 1824 Died July 20th 1837 The small gravestone of Eldridge Pauley in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Bloomington, Indiana, was carved with a misspelling—a crucial mistake.  Every journalist is taught … Continue reading →