Mildred Smith’s Headstone Returns to Biloxi Cemetery
A Story from The Biloxi-D’Iberville Press by Frank Stumbo
Mildred Finally Comes Home
The story of how Mildred Smith’s 89-year-old tombstone found its way into the waters of the Biloxi Back Bay may never be discovered, but how it found its way back to the Biloxi Cemetery is a well-known fact.
On Dec. 2, 1919, more than eighty-nine years ago, Smith was laid to rest in the Biloxi Cemetery after passing from what an archived death certificate called “medical complications.”
She was laid to rest in the Fallow-Esposito plot with a headstone that simply read “Mildred” accompanied by her birth date, Feb. 15, 1900, and death date, Nov. 29, 1919.
RJ Deno and Frank Stumbo place Mildred's Headstone to its rightful place. For more photos, see the Photo Gallery
For nearly a century, she and her headstone rested peacefully in the cemetery until something ripped them apart. More than four months ago, her headstone was found in the waters of the bay near Fountain’s pier, according to RJ Deno, president of the D’Iberville Historical Society. Deno said when he first saw the stone he knew what he had to do. “I knew it would mean so much to this lady, whoever she was, to have her headstone back in place because we are talking about something that is going to impact her for eternity,” he said. So I thought to myself that we have got to find out where this headstone goes.”
So with little information available, Deno, along with the D’Iberville Historical Society, began the difficult task of researching one woman’s 89-year-old death.
Deno said he received help from the Mississippi Development Center in Biloxi, the Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home and others. In fact, the O’Keefe funeral home found out her last name, he said, which enabled him to search city hall records for her death records.
“They [O'Keefe] found her last name for me by bringing up the dates and her first name,” he said. “So we found out who she was and then were able to find out some information about how she died.”
Facts about her personal life were impossible to find, he said. He did, however, discover that she was born in Biloxi, lived and died in New Orleans and was buried in the Biloxi Cemetery.
Upon her death, she was brought to her brother, W. H. Hunt’s home at 321 Main Street for a showing, and then was passed through the Church of the Nativity BVM the next day.
She was laid to rest Dec 2. 1919 in Lot no. 351 section 4 of the Biloxi Cemetery.
Her total burial charges were $103.
Now, thanks to the D’Iberville Historical Society and RJ Deno, Mildred and her headstone were reunited during a simple ceremony last Saturday, November 29, 2008, exactly 89 years after her death.
“It’s a small ceremony but hopefully it will be impactful and meaningful, not just to Mildred and the historical society, but to you, too because we are all a part of this,” Deno said to the crowd gathered.
In a eulogy given during the ceremony, Father Greg Barras of St. Micheal’s church in Biloxi said this ceremony was important in that it reminded people about having human dignity and respect for the living, along with the dead.
“This ceremony is a way of passing on that value to others and this is really significant for us to reestablish how to take care of our dead and to remember them,” he said.
Father Greg Barras says a prayer for Mildred.
Clara Koehler and DeeDee Auge of Latimer, who had been following this story in the paper, said they believed the reuniting ceremony was a good thing.
“I believe that she and all her relatives would be happy about her headstone being reunited with her grave,” Auge said. “I think she is looking down on us and saying ‘thank you.’”
