By Marla Ballard
Reporter
SCOTTSBORO - For centuries people have made pilgrimages to the burial sites of well-known individuals. In modern times tombstone tourism has continued to be a phenomenon. This is evident from the fact that each year, 600,000 people visit the mausoleum of Elvis Presley. In addition to Elvis the most visited gravesites in the U.S. are of John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana, Bruce Lee, Leonardo da Vinci, Bob Marley, Marilyn Monroe, and William Shakespeare.
While the saying is “dead men tell no tales,” that has not stopped the remarkable stories of some of those buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Scottsboro. Take for example Lucille Benson who had roles in a number of movies between 1960 and 1983, several under director Steven Spielberg, including The Fugitive Kind (with Marlon Brando and Maureen Stapleton), Silver Streak (with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor), Big Fauss and Little Halsey (with Robert Redford and Lauren Hutton), and Mame (with Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur).
Benson appeared in many television series, including Alice, Simon and Simon, The Ropers, Wonder Woman, Eight is Enough, Little House on the Prairie, Mannix, Cannon, Love Boat, The Waltons, and Bonanza. She was a cast member of the Bosom Buddies sitcom in 1980 with Tom Hanks. She died on February 17, 1984, in Scottsboro.
Some of the lure of tombstone tourism is the mystery behind the grave. For example, on October 18, 1981, an unidentified man was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Scottsboro. His burial was delayed for five weeks while his picture was circulated nationally and his body was viewed by numerous people searching for lost family members.
Thirty-three years after he was buried in Cedar Hill, the FBI placed an alleged murderer, William Bradford Bishop, on its Ten Most Wanted list. He was charged by the FBI with murdering his wife, mother, and three children in 1976. After watching a “cold case” program, a Scottsboro Funeral Home employee informed the FBI that there was a strong resemblance between William Bradford Bishop and Scottsboro’s unknown man. The FBI agreed the matter was worth pursuing, and the unknown man was exhumed for DNA analysis.
DNA tests failed to establish the unknown man as the alleged killer. The wanted man has never been apprehended.
Among the graves, the site of Matt Wann brings history alive from the 1931 case in which nine black youths were accused of assaulting two white women in Scottsboro. Wann was the Jackson County Sherriff who faced down a 100-plus man lynch mob in front of the county jail in order to protect the Scottsboro boys. Wann pulled the nine young men from a train just yards from the edge of his jurisdiction. “A little further and they’d have been known as ‘The Huntsville Boys’,” Wann is credited with saying.
Wann’s actions that night are commonly believed to have inspired the scene where Atticus Finch makes a similar stand in “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Many also speculate that Matt Wann’s jailhouse defense cost him his life. He was murdered one year later under unusual circumstances involving fake warrants.
For more information on other notable grave sites at Cedar Hill Cemetery (located next to Unclaimed Baggage) go to www.jchaweb.org. A cemetery stroll with a tour guide may be taking place in the future, follow Jackson County Historical Association on Facebook or email jcha@scottsboro.org.
