Mystery surrounds tombstone found near elementary school in 2008

Klaetsch inspects tombstone in March 2008.

(The following story originally appeared in the March 13, 2008 edition of The Evergreen Courant under the headline “Questions arise over tombstone.")

It’s a mystery.

Evergreen police, local school officials and the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance are looking for answers surrounding a mysterious tombstone found in an out of the way place in Evergreen earlier this week.

According to Evergreen Police Detective Sean Klaetsch, officials with the Conecuh County School System discovered a “mysterious” tombstone on property off of Kendall Avenue, adjacent to Evergreen Elementary School, in Evergreen. The school system acquired the property, located across Kendall Avenue and just east of the new school building, some time ago, and school system workers discovered the tombstone in a wooded area near a pair of old, wooden buildings on the property, Klaetsch said. The tombstone was found lying flat on the ground, and there were no obvious gravesites in the area, Klaetsch said.

Thinking that the tombstone had been moved to the property, possibly by vandals, Superintendent of Schools Ronnie Brogden called Evergreen police to report the discovery, Klaetsch said.

“Maintenance workers with the city say that the tombstone has been here for years,” Klaetsch said. “But we’re pretty sure that this isn’t where it belongs. We’re hoping that someone will come forward who knows about the tombstone or where it belongs and get it back to its rightful place.”

The text on the tombstone reads as follows: Lillie Irene, Daughter of S.E. Gibbons, Born At Clayton, Ala., March 20th 1895, Died July 18th 1923, Gone But Not Forgotten.

According to Sherry Johnston of Evergreen, President of the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance and Genealogist-Historian for the Evergreen-Conecuh County Public Library, local archives and online databases show that a Stephen E. Gibbons, also known as “Gebbons,” lived in the Old Town precinct in 1920. His wife’s name was Mary and his children were listed as George M., Jake, Maggie M. and a 22-year-old widowed daughter named Irene Weaver. Records also indicate that the woman may have died from complications due to the birth of a child in 1923, Johnston said.

Johnston also discovered that, according to a book written by Elizabeth d’Autrey Riley, there is a plot for the Gibbons family at the Old Evergreen Cemetery. Buried in that plot, according to the book, are Samuel Eugene Gibbons, Mary I. Gibbons and Lillie Irene Gibbons, Johnston said. The Old Evergreen Cemetery is located on the other side of town from the new elementary school, near the intersection of Perryman Street and Shipp Street.

Johnston searched the cemetery for a tombstone that marked Lillie Irene Gibbons’ grave, but had not found one as of press time.

“According to the book, she’s buried in the Old Evergreen Cemetery, but we can’t assume that the marker is the same one that’s supposed to be in the cemetery. I plan to continue to survey the cemetery, and if I don’t find her tombstone, it’s a good chance that the one that’s been found out by the elementary school should be in the Old Evergreen Cemetery. If that’s the case, Lord knows why someone would move it all the way across town or when it happened.”

Anyone with information about the tombstone is asked to contact The Evergreen Courant at 251-578-1492 or Johnston at 251-578-2670.