 New Gray Cemetery Knoxville, Knox Co, TN
The road to New Gray Cemetery was a long delayed journey into the past. It began with the desire of my friend Chuck to discover his Confederate heritage. It ended with a visit to a lonely grave in a downtown Knoxville, TN cemetery. One cannot understand the joy felt when finally coming face to face with one's heritage. After my research provided Chuck with the details of his southern ancestry, he made plans to visit Knoxville. The Knoxville sojourn's sole purpose was to find his gg-grandfather's grave. Not realizing that the cemetery would be so large, he made plans to arrive in Knoxville on a Sunday when the cemetery office was closed. Upon discovering the difficulty of the situation he reached for his cell phone in frustration and called me, back home in Tidewater. "I can't find him. I have looked everywhere and I just can't locate the grave." We stayed on the phone as he continued the search. Finally I heard him shout in frustration, "Where are you?" John Baxter Lawson answered him immediately as Chuck looked straight at his grave. "You can't imagine how it felt", Chuck later explained to me. In that observation he was very wrong. I know exactly how he felt. There are angels smiling in heaven. Cemetery Photographed February 12, 2003 by Chuck Rippel. |
