Spring Break
The ghosts of Athens past: Enthusiast pieces together cemetery's mysterious history
MATT EVANS
Issue date: 10/28/09 Section: Out & About
|
Such a name may sound macabre to some, but to the elderly woman, life only makes sense in exploring the lives and deaths (as she calls them, "stories") of other people.
No, she is not doing academic research or even profiting from her labor, but is rather furthering the preservation of Athens' history by commemorating the lives of those now buried in the Oconee Hill Cemetery, located on East Campus Road across from Sanford Stadium.
For the larger portion of her life, Marshall's days have consisted of scouring the archives of the University library, walking tirelessly from headstone to headstone in Oconee Hill Cemetery and then retreating to her house to piece together the gathered information.
In 1971, the first edition of Oconee Hill Cemetery's earliest history was published, with Marshall cited as an attributing author, as a means to replace the cemetery's records that were lost in a fire in 1896.
Now, almost 40 years after the release of the original work, she is anxiously awaiting the mid-November release of her annotated version of "Oconee Hill Cemetery of Athens, Georgia, Volume 1," which profiles more than 3,900 people buried during the period of the cemetery's 1856 opening and the 1896 fire.
In respect to her extensive research, it comes as no surprise that this first volume is 626 pages long.
Marshall said her obsession spawned from the interest of her husband's family.
"I guess I married into the love of this cemetery," she said. "My husband George's parents and family were always interested [in] Oconee Hill, which led me to really become enamored with it."
Ever since, she has spent her time journeying through 40 years worth of microfilm of Athens newspapers, using 19th century obituaries and articles as proxies for the burned records and now-deceased people that could have potentially shed light on the cemetery's earliest and uninscribed graves.
