Wind swirls through Friendship Cemetery on a cool March afternoon, carrying with it fragments of the past. From scattered gravesites come snatches of monologues from Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science students rehearsing for the 28th annual Tales from the Crypt. A colonel who died at Shiloh, a newspaper editress, an Irish immigrant tailor, a former state governor and more — all buried at the storied cemetery in the 19th or early 20th century.
During the 78th Columbus Spring Pilgrimage April 5-14 several thousand visitors will meet them all. At each candlelit stop along walking tours on four evenings, students in period dress will bring these spirits back to life for a while. The historical research and dramatic performance project is a successful partnership between MSMS, the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library and Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation.
“William Faulkner has written that, ‘The past is never dead. It is not even past,'” says MSMS history teacher and project director Chuck Yarborough. It’s one reason he willingly accepted the reins of Tales from the Crypt 18 years ago after its creator and founding MSMS faculty member Carl Butler passed away. It never gets old.
“To me, it’s new and magical every year as each group of students figures out that this really does mean something to the community, because of this understanding that students develop,” Yarborough says.
The list
“Oh! Where did you come from?” says Ethan Trapolino, strumming a small guitar as he rounds a weathered stone cemetery monument, rehearsing his narrative. He’s in character as John F. Williams, a Civil War-era physician who was the first to die in the Battle of Fort Donelson near the Tennessee-Kentucky border in 1862. Trapolino, from Nesbit, then begins an original song he composed about Williams for his dramatic vignette.
Nearby, Dairian Bowles of Byhalia portrays another early-19th century physician. John H. Hand pioneered “modern” medical techniques after arriving in Columbus in the 1820s. Other students represent a variety of men and women who had a hand in shaping the city and state.
Like all the presenters, Trapolino and Bowles knew nothing about the people whose names they picked months ago from a list of about 100 buried at Friendship prior to 1930. Yarborough removes all hints from the list, such as titles. So Austin Cosby of Starkville didn’t know the Henry Lewis Whitfield he selected was a former Mississippi governor and past president of what would become Mississippi University for Women.
“We picked from a sheet of names with no other information … but when we went to the gravesite, at that point, it wasn’t just a name. It was a person, a real person who had lived in Columbus,” says Cosby.
Developing character
For the students, getting to know their research subjects is a matter of intense primary and secondary source research using the Columbus library, Lowndes County courthouse records, Ancestry Classroom, Library of Congress, collections at The W and Mississippi State plus other resources.
“Each student develops a character and writes an original monologue script conveying the student’s interpretation of significant events that influenced and were influenced by their research subject,” Yarborough explains.
Fifty-five history students wrote research papers and scripts on someone from Yarborough’s list. Through auditions, a cast was selected to perform at the cemetery.
Millie Perdue of Ocean Springs is among them. Her subject is Florence H. Kimble Kaye, whom we meet near the end of World War I. Florence’s son, Sam Kaye Jr., was Mississippi’s most decorated flyer during the Great War. In her research, Perdue discovered a proud and respected mother. Tales from the Crypt offers an opportunity to bring her “back to life,” Perdue says.
“When you pass a cemetery on a highway or at a random church, you don’t necessarily think about who those people were who are buried there. You see headstones, but you don’t think of them as people. By being in Tales, I get to relive being that person and bring them into the present minds of people.”
Yarborough urges students to understand their characters in the context of their time.
“For instance, a student who might have a female research subject in the 1890s might look into what was the bigger picture for women then,” he explains.
Community service
Between 2,000 and 3,000 visitors annually attend Tales from the Crypt during Pilgrimage. The small admission they pay — $5 for adults, $3 for students — goes further than they may realize. Proceeds generally cover performance costs, but in the past six years, Tales students have also donated almost $40,000 to charitable causes, $6,000 of that in 2017. Beneficiaries have included Palmer Home for Children, Mississippi Red Cross, the Columbus library, Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation and Batson’s Children’s Hospital, among others.
The Tales program has received national and regional recognition, including a Heritage Award for Preservation Education from the Mississippi Heritage Trust and a Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. It’s been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” in Garden & Gun and The Atlantic, and Turner South’s “3 Day Weekend.”
Yarborough feels strongly that Tales from the Crypt develops students not only as researchers and writers, but also as collaborators with the community and with one another.
“One of the most valuable lessons of this project is about leadership, about working together and about community. That’s why we keep doing it,” he says. “It was genius when Carl Butler developed it, and it’s still genius.”
How to go
Family-friendly Tales from the Crypt walking tours at Friendship Cemetery, 1400 Fourth St. S., are 7-10 p.m. April 6, 9, 11 and 13. Visitors are asked to arrive no later than 9 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students, available on tour nights at the cemetery.
For more information about Tales tours and the Columbus Spring Pilgrimage, go to visitcolumbusms.org or call 800-920-3533 or 662-329-1191.
Pilgrimage highlights
April 5-14
Note: Some events are free; others require tickets. For information, go to visitcolumbusms.org or call 800-920-3533 or 662-329-1191.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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