| Nesbitt Memorial Library Columbus, Texas |
Last Updated
November 30, 2009 |
Live Oaks and Dead Folks
The Cemetery Tours Conducted by the Nesbitt Memorial Library
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Background |
In 2002, at a professional conference, Linda Wolff of Victoria mentioned to Bill Stein that she had once conducted a tour of a cemetery, with actors at various selected headstones portraying the deceased. She commented about how successful the tour was and recommended that Stein create one for Columbus. Stein mentioned the idea to library-board-member Dorothy Albrecht, who immediately told him that the library in nearby La Grange had already conducted one or more similar tours. That fall, Albrecht induced Stein to go to the event in La Grange, and Stein came away with the idea to write a tour for Columbus.
Stein completed a script so rapidly that the Nesbitt Memorial Library considered conducting its first tour the following spring. However, the board finally decided that autumn was more appropriate, and the tour was delayed for six months. Over the summer, the library board discussed the upcoming tour many times. After much discussion, the board decided to call the tour "Headstones and Haints," the word "haints" being an old slang term for "ghosts." As the date of the tour approached, Stein and Albrecht were discussing the name when Albrecht mentioned the old motto of the City of Columbus, "The City of Live Oaks and Live Folks." Stein immediately came up with Live Oaks and Dead Folks for the name of the cemetery tour, and, at close to the last minute, the tour had its name. The word "haints," however, lives on in the program, to head the list of the actors and their roles.
Since that first tour in 2003, Live Oaks and Dead Folks has evolved into the library's principal annual event. The library has conducted tours of both the old Columbus City Cemetery and the larger Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery in Columbus. The following are profiles of each of the cemetery tours.
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Live Oaks and Dead Folks 1 |
| Cemetery: | Columbus City Cemetery |
| Dates: | Tuesday, October 28, 2003; Saturday, November 1, 2003 |
| Actors and Characters: | Larry Hickman as William B. Dewees Tracey Wegenhoft as Ophelia Johnson Mary Anne Pickens as Sarah Whitfield Christine Hancher as Mary Wallace Betty Jo Seifert as Mary Anderson Paulina Kearney as Molly Nelson Ernest Mae Seaholm as Nannie Thatcher Andrus George Fox as William Harbert Bob Pickens as William Harbert Amber Hollywood as Bettie Schultz Pierce Arthur as Jacob Scherer Toni Burns as Dilue Rose Harris Mary Mattingly as Dorothea Jordt Harvey Steward as Bartley Harbert Bill Mosley as Emil Untermeyer Charlene Anderson as Lucinda Wolters |
| Guides: | Darlene Argo Jim Kearney Bob Pickens Tana Ross Mary Lynn Skinner Bill Stein |
| Crew: | Susan Archuletta Judy Gates Alma Hilburn Patty Simmons Bill Stein |
| Gatekeepers: | Dorothy Albrecht Judy Gates |
| Ticket Sales: | 230 |
| Comments: | 1. Rehearsal, held on the Sunday before the first tours, was
a near disaster, as the weather was damp and frigid and the wind so intense
it destroyed some umbrellas. However, all the scripts were monologues,
allowing the actors to work on their parts at their leisure, and everybody
was ready to perform on the night of the event. 2. After rehearsal, the cast adjourned to the library for a chicken dinner. We intended to eat at the cemetery, but the weather was too bad. 3. The gatekeepers sat at a table under a tent. Tours were scheduled to start at 7:00 p. m. and leave every twenty minutes. Because of the unexpected crush of walk-up business, extra tours were created, which started ten minutes after the previous tour departed. 4. There was a water break about halfway through the tour. The water station was manned by Patty Simmons. 5. We used Tiki torches to illuminate the grave sites. Each guide carried a lantern; some fuel based and some battery powered. 6. One of the actors, George Fox, got ill and could not perform on Sunday night. Bob Pickens, who had enlisted as a guide, stepped in an performed the role on very short notice. 7. Another of the actors dropped out of the tour rather suddenly. Amber Hollywood, a high-school student who worked at the library, was recruited to take the role, and drew much acclaim. 8. Mary Anne Pickens played the role of one of her ancestors. 9. There were problems with traffic flow, as not enough consideration to the spacing of the gravesites had been given. 10. About a week after the tour, Bob and Mary Anne Pickens hosted a party for the cast and crew at their home. 11. After the tour, in response to several requests for copies of the script, we created a souvenir booklet and distributed copies to the people who participated in the tour. |
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Live Oaks and Dead Folks 2 |
| Cemetery: | Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery, Columbus |
| Dates: | Saturday, November 6, 2004; Sunday, November 7, 2004 |
| Actors and Characters: | Bob Pickens as Jesse Johnson Christine Hancher as Virginia Baker Bill Mosley as Oscar Zumwalt Mary Anne Pickens as Mattie Burford Elizabeth Flint as Stella Luck Paulina Kearney as Fannie Darden Bob Gillespie as the feud historian Laura Ann Rau as Pauline Russell Ron Lambert as Ike Towell Robert Russell as Larkin Hope Betty Jo Seifert as Martha Gloger Amber Hollywood as Tyla Hadden Chelsea Hollywood as Polly, Tyla's parrot Tracey Wegenhoft as Sophie Bridge Ernest Mae Seaholm as Bettie Munn Gay Jim Kearney as Bob Stafford |
| Guides: | Cathy Blymyer Toni Burns Cindy Eden George Fox Pat Gillespie Larry Hickman Mary Mattingly Laura Obenhaus Bill Stein Dana Wagner |
| Crew: | Susan Archuletta Judy Gates Larry Hickman Alma Hilburn Jane Mattingly Noah Roberts Patty Simmons Bill Stein Glenn Welch |
| Gatekeepers: | Dorothy Albrecht Judy Gates |
| Ticket Sales: | 239 |
| Comments: | 1. Rehearsal, held on October 31, was again very poor. Few
people knew their lines. 2. The gatekeepers sat at an open table. The tent that had been used in the first year was abandoned. 3. As this cemetery contains many more fences and narrow pathways, we experimented with Christmas lights and various glow-in-the-dark materials to help provide illumination. In the end, we simply added more Tiki torches. 4. During one of the tours, the guide's lantern broke. 5. As much of the tour was concerned with the violent events of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century known as the Colorado County Feud, Bob Gillespie was stationed at the water station, where he gave a brief history of the feud. 6. Charlene Anderson had to drop out of the cast at the last minute. Elizabeth Flint stepped into the role and, with little or no time to prepare, did an admirable job. 7.One of the characters, Tyla Hadden, owned a parrot. The parrot is buried beside her. At her gravesite, Amber Hollywood and Chelsea Hollywood portrayed the lady and her parrot (whose name unfortunately was Polly). Chelsea Hollywood crouched behind the gravestone, draped in a black sheet, and manipulated a hand-puppet parrot, perhaps the most physically demanding performance anyone was ever asked to give at the cemetery tours. This was also the only dialogue in the history of the tour. 8. The tour marked the first appearance of the wandering spirit, Martha Gloger, played boldly and amusingly by Betty Jo Seifert. 9.On Sunday night, we had more guides than we needed. |
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Live Oaks and Dead Folks 3 |
| Cemetery: | Columbus City Cemetery |
| Dates: | Saturday, November 5, 2005; Sunday, November 6, 2005 |
| Actors and Characters: | Ron Lambert as William B. Dewees Laura Ann Rau as Sarah Baker Tracey Wegenhoft as Alma Pinchback Bob Gillespie as Augustus Jones Paulina Kearney as Mollie Nelson Pat Gillespie as Sophie Vogel Cathy Blymyer as the chippy Amber Hollywood as Betty Schultz Toni Burns as Ella Ilse Ernest Mae Seaholm as Minna Senftenberg Jacob Truchard as Emile Houillion Ernie Lambert as Edwin A. Malsch Bill Mosley as Emil Untermeyer Betty Jo Seifert as Martha Gloger |
| Guides: | J. Paul Bruhn Mary Mattingly Cindy Schneider Jim Schneider Bill Stein Ruth Electra Terry |
| Crew: | Nita Sue Rogers Patty Simmons Bill Stein Joe Wegenhoft |
| Gatekeepers: | Susan Archuletta Alma Hilburn Nita Sue Rogers |
| Ticket Sales: | 214 |
| Comments: | 1. Dorothy Albrecht, our usual gatekeeper who was largely
responsible for the creation of the tour, was ill and missed the tour. 2. Rehearsal, on October 31, was poor. 3. Because of the limited size of the cemetery, we repeated four characters from the 2003 tour. We also had the wandering spirit of Martha Gloger, who had been seen searching for her grave the year before in another cemetery, again lamenting that she was lost. In four of those five cases, the same actors played the same roles. 4. Tours left every fifteen minutes. 5. Two linked characters, Emile Houillion and Edwin A. Malsch, drew considerable comment. Houillion talked about how he was convicted of murder; Malsch talked about how Houillion murdered his father. In the following years, linked characters became the hallmark of the tours. 6. One character talked about a well-known prostitute who was commonly called Cowpen Annie. To avoid using her real name, we created an imaginary "chippy" who was said to have worked for Cowpen Annie. |
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Live Oaks and Dead Folks 4 |
| Cemetery: | Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery, Columbus |
| Dates: | Friday, November 3, 2006; Saturday, November 4, 2006 |
| Actors and Characters: | Tracey Wegenhoft as Fannie
Mahon Gary Chandler as Jesse Harrison Roxanne Hartley as Carrie Grobe Bob Gillespie as John D. Gillmore Mike Ridlen as Reid Carter Toni Burns as Jeanette Flachmeier Chuck Parsons as James W. Guynn Ernest Mae Seaholm as Betty Hurr Pauline Kearney as Clara Kollmann Elizabeth Flint as Cynthia Tanner Youens Bob Pickens as Albert Hahn Bill Mosley as Robert Henry Harrison Laura Ann Rau as Clara Madison |
| Guides: | Adrienne Burris Kathy Burris Pat Gillespie Pat Parsons Mary Ann Pickens Bill Stein Jake Wegenhoft Joe Wegenhoft |
| Crew: | Bob Pickens Mary Anne Pickens Nita Sue Rogers Patty Simmons Bill Stein Joe Wegenhoft |
| Gatekeepers: | Dorothy Albrecht Susan Archuletta Alma Hilburn |
| Ticket Sales: | 234 |
| Comments: | 1. The rehearsal, on October 29, was the best
yet. 2. Six of the slated eight guides dropped out of the program in the weeks before the opening. Pat Parsons agreed to be a guide at rehearsal. Kathy and Adrienne Burris and Jake and Joe Wegenhoft, were added in the week before the show. 3. For the first time, the tours were conducted on Friday and Saturday, rather than Saturday and Sunday. This arrangement drew a larger crowd and worked better for the cast and crew. 4. Tours left every ten minutes. 5. To make things easier for the guides, the route of the tour was marked with red surveyor's tape. This innovation was copied by us from our friends in Lockhart, who also conduct an annual cemetery tour. 6. The library was able to make photographs of only two of the characters on the tour. The camera's batteries went dead and nobody had the opportunity to get new ones. Accordingly, for the first time, no souvenir booklet was created. 7. The actors did their best work yet, really getting into the spirit of the event and making their stories amusing and entertaining. 8. The characters Jesse Harrison, John D. Gillmore, James W. Guynn, and Robert Henry Harrison, were linked. All provided variations on the same stories. 9. For the first time, there were objections from people in the community to elements of the script. We dealt with those as well as we could. 10. There was a cast party at Roasters, a local restaurant, after the tours on Saturday. |
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Live Oaks and Dead Folks 5 |
| Cemetery: | Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery, Columbus |
| Dates: | Friday, November 2, 2007; Saturday, November 3, 2007 |
| Actors and Characters: | Bob Gillespie as Joseph W. Brown Mike Ridlen as John Cassagne Allison Jones as Mathilda Tait Tracey Wegenhoft as Caroline Delany Jim Kearney as J. W. E. Wallace Laura Ann Rau as Kate Oakes Bill Mosley as John H. Bowers Gary Chandler as Charley Stafford Paulina Kearney as Ruth Gillespie Elizabeth Flint as Mabel Miller Sally Rogers as Mary Farrar Holland |
| Guides: | Kathy Burris Diane Callen Martha Flint Pat Gillespie Bill Stein Jake Wegenhoft |
| Crew: | Patty Simmons Bill Stein Joe Wegenhoft |
| Gatekeepers: | Dorothy Albrecht Patty Simmons |
| Ticket Sales: | 271 |
| Comments: | 1. For the first time, there was no rehearsal. The actors
were instructed to arrive at least thirty minutes before show time so they
could be placed at their gravesites 2. For the first time, the tour competed with a Columbus High School football game, which was played nearby on Friday night. We had no idea how annoying this would be, but it was tolerable. Many of the actors were encouraged to make jokes about the game, which were well-received by our audience. These jokes, of course, were not made on Saturday, when, thankfully, all was quiet and dark. 3. On Saturday night, one guide's lantern fell apart, starting a small grass fire. The fire was quickly extinguished. This was the second time a fuel-based lantern fell apart. As a result, the fuel-based lanterns were all replaced with battery-powered ones.. 4. Once again, there was a substantial walk-up business, which left us perilously short of guides. 5. Allison Jones, an eighth grader, played the role of her great-great grandmother. 6. The tour was to stop at twelve gravesites, but one actor did not show up either night. Her station was dropped. Still, the tour was quite long enough. 7. The cast and crew had a party at the cemetery after the last tour on Saturday. 8. In early December 2007, the five persons who had participated in every tour, Paulina Kearney, Bill Mosley, Patty Simmons, Bill Stein, and Tracey Wegenhoft, were awarded the Live Oaks and Dead Folks Dorothy Albrecht Award, a medal shaped like a tombstone and suspended from a black drape. In future, the same medal will be awarded to persons who participate in five tours. |
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Live Oaks and Dead Folks 6 |
| Cemetery: | Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery, Columbus |
| Dates: | Friday, November 7, 2008; Saturday, November 8, 2008 |
| Actors and Characters: | John Foard as Robert L. Foard Sally Rogers as Hattie Middlebrook Amber Hollywood as Helen Hunt Tracey Wegenhoft as Elmina Haskell Jim Kearney as Fred Miller Betty Jo Seifert as Martha Gloger Paulina Kearney as Kate Glithero Kerry Whitfill as Kayte Koliba Gary Chandler as Benny Isgrig Bill Mosley as Jacob Mattern Bob Gillespie as Anton Meduna |
| Guides: | Kathy Burris Diane Callen Ester Chandler Martha Flint Carla Foard Pat Gillespie Allison Jone Bernadette Marsh Laura Myres Holly Strother Bill Stein |
| Crew: | Carla Foard John Foard Patty Simmons Bill Stein Joe Wegenhoft |
| Gatekeepers: | Dorothy Albrecht Elizabeth Flint Laura Ann Rau Patty Simmons |
| Ticket Sales: | 321 |
| Comments: | 1.
The cemetery
tour was prominently mentioned in an article about Columbus which appeared
in the November 2008 issue of Texas Highways magazine. That might
have contributed to the rise in ticket sales. 2. Again, there was no rehearsal. The actors were instructed to arrive at least thirty minutes before show time so they could be placed at their gravesites 3. John Batla, owner of Armadillo Portable Toilets, donated a portable toilet for use on Friday and Saturday nights. We set up the toilet so that it blocked one of the entrances to the cemetery, both to assist us in keeping automobiles from driving through during the tours and because it was a prominent, easily visible location. However, shortly after we set the toilet up, the caretaker of the cemetery objected to its placement. After an unnecessarily lengthy discussion with him, he allowed us to proceed with setting up the cemetery. Later that afternoon, we were able to get two workers from Armadillo Portable Toilets to move the toilet. 4. The tours were set to begin at 7:30, however, it was dark well before seven each night. Accordingly, on both nights we added tours at 7:20. There were ten tours on Friday night and eleven on Saturday. 5. The tours again competed with a Columbus High School football game on Friday night. 6. Walk-up business was smaller than normal. 7. John Foard played the part of his relative (first cousin, three times removed), Robert L. Foard, and Kerry Whitfill played the role of her grandmother, Kayte Koliba. 8. Pat Gillespie was ill, but came to the cemetery and led tours both Friday and Saturday nights. 9. As one of the guides did not return on Saturday night, we had to impress Holly Strother, the daughter of one of the actors into service. She graciously agreed. 10. After the tours on Friday night, while returning to her car, Laura Ann Rau fell and injured her head and shoulder. She had a black eye the next day. 11. The cast and crew had a party at the cemetery after the last tour on Saturday. At the party, two persons, Dorothy Albrecht and Bob Gillespie, were awarded the Live Oaks and Dead Folks Dorothy Albrecht Medal, for participating in five of the library's cemetery tours. Three persons who did not attend the party, Susan Archuletta, Pat Gillespie, and Laura Ann Rau, also received Albrecht medals. |