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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Tombstone Tuesday - Family Time in the Cemetery

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you've seen this plot before.  It's the family plot for my paternal grandparents, Calvin and Anna (Green) YARBOROUGH.  This plot is located in the Louisburg City Cemetery, formerly known as the Louisburg Colored Cemetery, and often referred to by locals as, "The Hill".  The majority of my paternal ancestors are buried throughout this serene, remotely located cemetery, but the plot shown holds my grandparents Calvin and Priscilla YARBOROUGH and my uncle, Calvin R. Yarborough, III.  Space remains for my aunt, who just celebrated her 91st birthday.  I also plan to place a marker there in memory of my father, Arthur Yarborough, Sr., although he was interred in the Hampton National Cemetery with full military honors, when he passed in 1997.
On Saturday, the day before Easter, my daughters (who had both come in for the holiday weekend) and I, along with my oldest daughter's fiance, took the 2 and 3/4 hour drive down to Louisburg to visit my aunt, with an ulterior purpose being for her to meet the fiance. :)  After a nice visit, we piled back into the car to leave, when lo and behold, my vehicle (which has a mind of its own - hee hee) just knowingly made the turn from the old homeplace (where my aunt still lives) onto Mineral Springs Road, and directly towards The Hill!  Seriously though, this was an opportunity I just couldn't resist.  Usually, I'm alone when I take my trips to Louisburg, or occasionally, my youngest daughter (now 22) might be with me.  But to have a chance to visit our ancestral burial ground with both of my daughters in tow (and a future son-in-law, to boot) was too good to pass up.  So, there we went, up the winding rock-covered path which was once traveled by horse and buggy (and is still only wide enough for one car at a time), through the woods, and up the hill to the cemetery. 
As we entered the clearing, I began pointing out the ancestors:  GREENS to the left, a little further up, Hilliard and Mattie YARBORO, and the tiny graves of all the children they'd lost too soon... Next to them, Cousins Geral, Sheldon, and others... over to the right in the center of the field, Eugene and Lucy YARBOROUGH and their children, several of whom also died young.  Then, on the corner near the top of the hill we stopped.  Our family plot, proudly bearing the YARBOROUGH name was in full view.  As I began to tell the stories (mostly for the benifit of the fiance), my daughters gave in to what they knew was inevitable - a photo shoot!

                           Photo property of Renate Y Sanders.  April 23, 2011 - Louisburg City Cemetery