Little Lamb Grave Site

Here's another interesting gravesite in Pleasant Shade Cemetery. I took the photo from a distance, but assume that this is the gravesite of a child. Perhaps during another visit, I will take a closer look at the grave site.

Founder of Pleasant Shade Cemetery

Tombstone Tuesday - Wedding Dates on Tombstones

I have heard about marriage dates being on tombstones, but never saw one until earlier this month during a visit to the Pleasant Shade Cemetery. Below are two examples from the tombstones of Mr. and Mrs. Mask and Mr. and Mrs. Gayles. This is invaluable information for a family researchers.

Beer Bottle Grave

On Saturday, I visited Pleasant Shade Cemetery in Hampton, VA. This is one of the interesting graves I saw. Who left the beer bottles, I wonder? Was this a random act by some beer guzzlers or was this from the friends of Rashed?

On Sunday, I visited the cemetery again to get a better picture of the grave marker. I only moved the bottles that covered the writing on the grave marker of this young man. Still, even with the bottles repositioned, this makes an interesting photo of a grave marker decorated with beer bottles and gold praying hands.

In an attempt to understand the reason for this beer bottle grave, I shared this photo with some family members and genealogy friends on MyFamily.com. One family member believed that this was some type of ritual; a genealogy friend enlightened me about this ritual with the comments below.

"I have seen this also, especially for certain "club" motorcycle riders. Some
have had one beer bottle at the gravesite, which I believe to be the deceased's
favorite beer. One like this with several bottles makes me believe a group of
friends came and partied with him. Especially since one of the bottles is still
capped, that would be Rashed's beer. I would assume (bad thing to do I know)
that at one time these bottles were all standing up on the headstone."

On Sunday, August 9th, I looked at the date of death more closely and noticed that this was the 6th anniversary of Rashed's death. I found this bottle arrangement on Saturday, the 8th. Therefore, I assume that Rashed's friends may have partied at their friend's grave, possibly on Friday night to commemorate his death and life.

For me, this is certainly an interesting alternative to just decorating a grave with flowers.

R.I.P. Rashed!

Sacred Sunday: Elder Lighfoot Solomon Michaux

Yesterday I decided to visit the Pleasant Shade Cemetery in Hampton, VA for two purposes: one was to get a little exercise and the second was in hopes of locating the gravesites of distant cousins of the Pair family. I got some needed exercise, but did not locate the gravesites of my Pair family yet.

After walking around a certain section of the cemetery and taking photos of interesting looking grave makers, I decided to drive around the rest of this huge 100-year-old historically black cemetery. As I reached a dead end, the grave maker below caught my attention.

“Michaux” (pronounced like “Miss-Shaw”)---I always loved the sound of that name when I heard my grandmother say it as she talked about a minister in her community. As I looked closer at the grave marker, I discovered that this was the final resting place of the Elder Michaux and his wife that my grandmother remembered. This is quite an elaborate grave maker especially when compared with the others in this huge cemetery. The large size of this marker is what caught my attention.

Later, I showed my grandmother the digital photos of the grave maker. She was surprised that the Michaux’s were buried in the Hampton Roads area because she thought that they had been buried in Washington, D.C. She commented that Michaux was the “Happy Am I” radio preacher and that he and his wife Mary looked like white people. “Happy Am I” was the song that became Elder Michaux’s theme song. Even though I didn’t think that a black preacher would have been on television during Elder Michaux’s lifetime, I still asked my grandmother if he had been on television. “Yes,” she said. I was amazed and impressed and excited about finding more information on the life of this great preacher.

Later that afternoon, I searched the Internet for more information and found Elder Michaux’s obituary listed in a newspaper index. I can’t wait to go to the library to read and copy the obituary. I also found other biographical websites and learned that Elder Michaux was not just a local preacher, but his ministry had spread worldwide, to large cities such as Washington, D.C. and that he was on both radio and television.

My best and most treasured finding on the Internet was a YouTube video of Elder Michaux and his congregation singing. Since I found it, I have played it continuously, downloaded it to my computer, and shared it with some online genealogy friends and my grandmother. As my grandmother watched the video, she commented that Elder Michaux was much younger in the video than she remembered. By the time she knew him, he was elderly and gray-haired. This would have occurred after the mid 1940s when she moved to the neighborhood of Elder Michaux’s church. Grandma also commented that the way the ladies in the audience jumped to the music was a common practice she observed in this church when she visited them at the Newport News church and at tent meetings on 16th and Jefferson Avenue.

“Do you think this video was recorded at the Newport News church? I asked her.”

“No,” it must have been at the D.C. church,” she replied.

For more information on Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux, visit the following websites.

Jet Magazine – Baptisms by Elder Michaux in Potomoc River

Michaux, Lightfoot Solomon (1884-1968)

Elder Michaux Religious Show

Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux

Happy, Happy 1937

History of Gospel Spreading Church

Tombstone Tuesday - Just Sleeping

On Sunday, July 19, 2009, I visited the Pleasant Shade cemetery in Hampton, VA for several reasons. One was to visit the grave of a relative who had been buried on July 11th. The second reason was to locate the grave sites of sevearal Pair family members, who are believed to be distant cousins of my father's family. After the burial I attended on July 11th, several family members informed me that they noticed the tombstones of some Pairs in this cemetery. I did not see these tombstones, however, through obituary research, I know that members of the Pair family are buried in this cemetery.

Near the grave site I was visiting on Sunday, was this interesting grave marker of Joy E. Jackson, (February 17, 1958 - June 23, 2001.) I do not believe that Joy is a family member, however, her epitaph "Just Sleeping" caught my attention which is the reason I took this photo. Since it was extremely hot during my cemetery visit, I did not stay there long enough to look at similar or other grave markers.

I plan to visit this cemetery again soon during a cooler time.