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Historys alive in this cemetery |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Wednesday, 13 April 2005 |
By Nathan Tafoya April 12, 2005
Cemeteries are often somber reminders of legacy and history, but a local group is livening up one cemetery by combining food and costumes with an outdoor history lesson.
The Arizona State Genealogical Society is hosting its second annual Meet and Eat With Tucson's Pioneers at the Evergreen Cemetery, 3015 N. Oracle Road, on Saturday. Participants will get a sack lunch.
The Meet and Eat offers two tours that will visit the grave sites of nine Tucson pioneers. Presenters will be dressed in period costume and relate historical facts and stories of the pioneers they emulate.
Among them will be Ken Harris, a retired teacher and former actor who will portray Sam Hughes.
Harris has performed in Guam, on theater stages and from the bed of a truck since he began acting in 1939, but he said this is his first cemetery venue.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm doing a one-man show," said Harris. "I've tried to make it as authentic as I can."
He even grew a beard for the occasion.
Harris said he feels challenged to perform well because Hughes' descendants will be on the tours and he wants to present the former pioneer believably.
Cemetery tourists also will learn about pioneer women.
Jean Banowit will portray Lizzie Hughes Corbett, born in 1865, who worked side by side with her husband, J. Knox Corbett, in their lumber business. Banowit made her own costume for the presentation.
Standing by another grave will be Virginia Ginn, who will present another female pioneer who beat the odds.
"I am portraying Larcena Pennington, who was kidnapped by the Apaches from Madera Canyon on March 16, 1860, at age 22, lanced in the back by them several times, pushed over a ravine and left for dead," Ginn wrote in an e-mail. After Pennington regained consciousness a few days later, Ginn said, she crawled back to her base camp. She lived the remainder of her life in Tucson.
'Anyone hearing this story on April 16, cannot help but be impressed with the courage, stamina and just plain guts that she had!" she wrote.
Mike Shipione, a Tucson civil engineer and land surveyor, said he wound up with the role of George Roskruge because he fit the part.
"They figured that I needed to be Mr. Roskruge, since he was first civil engineer for the city of Tucson," Shipione said. "He was also a Pima County surveyor and he was also surveyor general for Arizona."
According to Betty Cook, co-chair for the Meet and Eat event, Roskruge surveyed and named many of the streets in Tucson.
Another historical figure on the tour will be Hiram Stevens, who was Tucson's treasurer in 1871. He shot his wife in the head in 1893, then shot himself.
"A comb in her hair deflected the bullet," said Kent Phillips of Mrs. Stevens' survival. Phillips, who will portray Stevens on Saturday, explained, "He was just depressed because he was going broke."
Co-chair Cook said about 200 people and a mixture of age groups attended last year's event.
Banowit participated in Meet and Eat last year as pioneer Maria Wakefield Fish. She said a group of Wakefield Middle School students came with teachers to learn about their school's namesake.
Eleanor Pickett is coming on Saturday because she's looking for ideas on how to raise public awareness and interest in Tempe's Double Butte Cemetery, which has a history dating back to the 1890s.
"We call it the Arlington of Tempe sometimes," said Pickett, chairwoman of a city of Tempe advisory committee.
Also attending on Saturday will be 19 residents from Rancho Resort, 1330 W. Sahuarita Road.
The 55-and-over community members will attend the tour as part of their monthly lunch outing called Lunch Bunch.
"The activities director always tries to find something interesting to take them to, and fun, and unusual," said Marilyn Payton, community manager for the resort. "And I don't know how fun a cemetery will be, but it'll be interesting. Interesting is the word."
"I think it's a good way to present history in a way that might be more interesting than just reading a book," Banowit said.
The Arizona Daily Star
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