Our next stop after 4 days in Charleston during spring break 2019 was a two-hour drive down to Savannah, our first visit there. In two days, we only “scratched the surface” of this beautiful city. We started with a tour that was highly recommended, led by “Bonaventure Don” Teuton. This was an interesting introduction to Savannah. The tour was really about the history of Savannah and its people, as told by a native son. The cemetery was a former plantation and is on the banks of the Wilmington River. The cemetery became famous when it was featured in the 1994 novel “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and in the movie based on the book. The grounds are beautiful, even though it was overcast and smoky the day we were there due to some large controlled burns by the Army at a nearby base. The tour is definitely worth doing if you get to Savannah.

While doing a little research for this post, I discovered something interesting. John Muir (known as the “Father of the National Parks”) spent 6 nights in the Bonaventure Cemetery waiting for money from home on his “Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf” from Indiana, through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. He described the cemetery as breathtakingly beautiful. He wrote a chapter in his book about the walk called “Camping in the Tombs.”

From Wikipedia (see the third photo): One of the most famous works of the sculptor John Walz is the monument he created for Gracie Watson. Gracie Watson was the only daughter of W. J. Watson and his wife, Frances. Gracie became ill with pneumonia and died in 1889 at age six. The year after her death, W. J. Watson took a photograph of Gracie to Walz, requesting a memorial to her. Walz sculpted a lifelike monument of a pensive Gracie lost in thought. Gracie's grave has been called "one of the most visited sites in Bonaventure Cemetery." Gracie's monument is also one of the only funerary monuments in Georgia sculpted in someone's exact likeness.

Note the final photo; this is the Mercer family plot. Here is where Savannah born Johnny Mercer is buried. He is one of the most accomplished songwriters of all time, including having won 4 Academy Awards for Best Original Song. He wrote the lyrics to more than 1,500 songs, including Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses, Autumn Leaves, and Hooray for Hollywood. He also co-founded Capitol Records.

My next post will be part 2 of 2 on Savannah and will be the main part of the city.

Our next stop after 4 days in Charleston during spring break 2019 was a two-hour drive down to Savannah, our first visit there. In two days, we only “scratched the surface” of this beautiful city. We started with a tour that was highly recommended, led by “Bonaventure Don” Teuton. This was an interesting introduction to Savannah. The tour was really about the history of Savannah and its people, as told by a native son. The cemetery was a former plantation and is on the banks of the Wilmington River. The cemetery became famous when it was featured in the 1994 novel “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and in the movie based on the book. The grounds are beautiful, even though it was overcast and smoky the day we were there due to some large controlled burns by the Army at a nearby base. The tour is definitely worth doing if you get to Savannah.

While doing a little research for this post, I discovered something interesting. John Muir (known as the “Father of the National Parks”) spent 6 nights in the Bonaventure Cemetery waiting for money from home on his “Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf” from Indiana, through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. He described the cemetery as breathtakingly beautiful. He wrote a chapter in his book about the walk called “Camping in the Tombs.”

From Wikipedia (see the third photo): One of the most famous works of the sculptor John Walz is the monument he created for Gracie Watson. Gracie Watson was the only daughter of W. J. Watson and his wife, Frances. Gracie became ill with pneumonia and died in 1889 at age six. The year after her death, W. J. Watson took a photograph of Gracie to Walz, requesting a memorial to her. Walz sculpted a lifelike monument of a pensive Gracie lost in thought. Gracie's grave has been called "one of the most visited sites in Bonaventure Cemetery." Gracie's monument is also one of the only funerary monuments in Georgia sculpted in someone's exact likeness.

Note the final photo; this is the Mercer family plot. Here is where Savannah born Johnny Mercer is buried. He is one of the most accomplished songwriters of all time, including having won 4 Academy Awards for Best Original Song. He wrote the lyrics to more than 1,500 songs, including Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses, Autumn Leaves, and Hooray for Hollywood. He also co-founded Capitol Records.

My next post will be part 2 of 2 on Savannah and will be the main part of the city.