On Valentine’s Day weekend, Oakland Cemetery shares 26 stories of love among the cemetery’s “residents,” from devoted spouses to a former volunteer and his beloved dog. Three of our favorites:
Best way with words
Julia Zachary Bowers (1910–1966) and Alton Demar “TeTe” Bowers (1906–1979)
This Atlanta pair wins our hearts with their sweetly honest epitaphs. Julia died at just 56, and her headstone bears a fitting quote from Edna St. Vincent Millay: “She burned her candle at both ends. But it made a lovely light.” Thirteen years later, TeTe followed with: “He was a fool. But Julia loved him.”
Creepiest meet-cute
Sarah Turner Ivy Kiser (1837–1897) and Marion Columbus Kiser (1830–1893)
Marion, a wealthy merchant, met his third wife, Sarah, while they were both visiting the graves of their deceased spouses. She only agreed to marry him if her first husband could join them in the mausoleum, where Marion’s previous two wives were also interred.
Grandest gesture
Clara Belle King (1837-1939) and Clyde L. King (1874–1941)
Clara wanted to be buried at her classic home off Ponce de Leon Avenue, but turning the backyard into a cemetery wasn’t allowed. Instead her husband, Clyde—who owned the King Plow Company, an agricultural manufacturing company whose building is now home to the King Plow Arts Center—had a mausoleum built as a replica of their four-columned house (today the location of Alpha Delta Pi’s headquarters).
This article originally appeared in our February 2016 issue under the headline “Love Among the Tombs.”
