A tombstone marked “unknown” in Centreville Four Points Cemetery remains the symbol of one of Bibb County’s greatest mysteries and some feel a great triumph of the County’s heart. An unknown boy 14-17 years old in age was killed in an accident on March 27, 1961 he was never identified. His funeral and tombstone was paid for as the tombstone reads “by Bibb County’s citizens who love children.”
By Daniel L. Bamberg
It is perhaps the greatest mystery in the history of Bibb County, Alabama. Beyond the surface however, it is to many one of the most heart breaking and yet somehow heart warming stories ever written in our local newspaper. Sunday, March 27 marks the 50th anniversary of the accident, which took the life of Bibb County’s unknown friend in death, a bizarre circumstance but a symbol of a community’s heart.
Fifty years ago, Bibb County residents were shocked to hear reports about a 14-17 year old Caucasian male hitchhiker who died in a crash when the vehicle he was being escorted in collided with the bridge rail and plunged into the Cahaba River near River Bend. The young boy drowned.
On his person besides the clothes he was wearing, was a Timex wrist watch, a carrying bag with several shirts and pants, a brown plastic wallet without any identification, and a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes with a South Carolina tax stamp.
The boy was 5’6” 120 lbs, with blue eyes and light brown hair. The boy had a tattoo which bared the inscription RY + LOVE. The autopsy revealed that the unknown boy might have walked with a slight limp.
For over a week the description of the boy was circulated nationwide. While many people inquired, either by way of personal visit or by phone, none claimed to know the boy.
A funeral was eventually held at Jack Lee Funeral Home on April 7, 1961. It was a joint community service presided over by 3 separate ministers of 3 differing religious denominations. Rev. Marcus Smith of Centreville Methodist Church, Rev. Bob Barnes of Centreville Baptist Church, and Rev. George Vernon of Brent Wesleyan Methodist Church each gave benedictions.
George Allen Desmond, Harold “Duck” Dailey, James Allen Mitchell, Ed Patridge, and Buck Wallace were pallbearers. 175 of Bibb County’s citizens attended the service, and according to the Centreville Press the boy was laid to rest beneath a heap of flowers donated from citizens across the community.
The front page article covering the funeral, which bares no credited author, opens by stating:
“An unknown adopted son of Bibb County was laid to rest beneath a beautiful blanket of flowers. He is someone this county never knew in life, but the people here took him to their hearts in death.”
The youth was buried near the curb in the historic cemetery at Four Points. A headstone bearing the word “Unknown” with a date of death was donated. It once displayed a posthumous photo of the youth in hopes that someone would eventually identify him. In 50 years nobody has. The photo is no longer inside of headstone.
Rev George Vernon’s sermon during the funeral made the best message out of a bizarre situation, which suddenly turned inspirational. In the sermon he appropriately entitled, “Who are We? – Rev. Vernon posed the stated, “a generation can suffer from moral amnesia, and wonder who we are.”
Nobody knew then, and likely will never know who this young boy was, but there is something he certainly is even today a mystery, which has inspired. In moments when Bibb County citizens may question who they are, where they are from, and where they are in the moral spectrum it is this story, which shines, to show who we can be.
In a time when a stranger entered our world and passed from it seemingly in an instant, the residents of Bibb County bonded together and honored this young one with a fitting funeral. He died as an unknown hitchhiker but lives in the hearts of those who remember as a symbol of dignity and perhaps the ultimate in Bibb County’s hospitality.
As Funeral Director, Jack Lee suggested back then, “we are just trying to treat him like we would want our children to be treated in such a situation.”
Perhaps when we lose our moral dignity we can look upon the grave of Bibb County’s unknown permanent resident. Perhaps to treat all strangers as we would treat our own children has always been the point of this young man’s demise. Perhaps the mystery is the purpose – to not know of his darkness, or his past but to know that in death he was treated like a human being. Perhaps the boy was a metaphysical transplant of this county’s conscience. Perhaps unknown in of itself is symbolic of the unknown betterment within the spirits of us all. Perhaps or perhaps not, but the heart of a community shined Bibb’s adopted youth in his passing potentially forever to be known as “unknown”.
The reason the photo is no longer on the headstone is because the tombstone was vandalized many years ago by one or more people of whom I am sure are fine, upstanding people of the community today (right?).
ReplyDelete