Oakland Cemetery News

CANCELLED - Oakland Cemetery Tour Event to Feature “Ladies of Oakland” on All Saints Sunday

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 by

Oakland Cemetery will come to life on All Saints Sunday, November 1, from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m., as history students and community volunteers portray women buried in Oakland. “This year, the volunteers were predominantly female,” said Dr. Gary Joiner, who serves on the Oakland Cemetery Preservation Society Board and who coordinates the tour with his wife, Marilyn. Given the number of female volunteers, this year’s event focuses on women buried in Oakland Cemetery.

The tour is a benefit for the Oakland Cemetery Preservation Society (OCPS). Suggested donation is $10 for adults and $1 for children. Tourists at the event will receive a map and list of characters so that they may visit with each at their leisure. OCPS will greet visitors at the Milam Street gate of the cemetery , just north of the Municipal Auditorium . Information on the cemetery and OCPS will be available at that location. In the event of rain, the event will not be held.

Portraying Oakland “residents” will be living historians from LSU in Shreveport and community volunteers. These costumed characters will talk about themselves and their lives. They include: Patti Underwood as Ann Harris Leonard, mother of Albert Harris Leonard; Jessica Sims as Amazon A. Cole Jacobs; Leigh Tomb Messenger as Mary Bennett Cane; Ashley Cecil as Annie McCune; Alicia Gordy as Julia Rule; Kendra Cherie Gray as Amanda Clark; Whitney Adkins as Martha Anne Norsworthy Buckelew; Sara Bare as Ada Vincent Delay, and Ida M. Smith and Patti Knox, who will portray yellow fever victims. According to Joiner, a few “residents,” children who died during the yellow fever epidemic, will also appear. They are Joshua and Nicholas Nabors and Benjamin and Eric Miller.

All Saints Day is the day following Halloween and is a religious holiday in Western Christianity that commemorates the dead. “This is the perfect time to remember the people who are buried at Oakland whose lives are entwined with the history of Shreveport,” Joiner said. “As we learn about them, we learn about the rich history of Shreveport.”

Those who cannot attend but who wish to support the organization that is dedicated to the restoration of the cemetery can contribute online or send contributions to OCPS, P. O. Box 5221, Shreveport, LA 71135-5221.

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