The Lady In Black/ Angel photo by R.W. Ware

After I had been in the play Look Homeward, Angel, I had a fascination for Southern cemeteries and markers. I began to photograph them, not just look them up in books. I would say I was moved by markers in St. Augustine. I used to read them. A lot of women and children died from fever. I had even sat by Albany’s Henry Flagler and his daughter and I had also found an Indian fighter from 1813. I also looked up Eugenia Price’s markers from her books. I’m happy to say I paid my respects to Thomas Jefferson’s plot. Most of these visits were peaceful, yet there was one that was not.

Visiting the National Cemetery in Marietta, GA, you are completely surrounded by confederate soldiers. Mary Phagen, a teenager who was murdered, rests there. Her Jewish employer from New York, Leo Frank, was brutally hung by a mob, but he didn’t kill her. Lana Turner and Claude Rains made a picture in 1937 called They Won’t Forget based on the incident and I had met a family member who had written a book about the case. A more accurate version with Jack Lemmon had been made later. My ex-husband had been cast in the film and at the last moment had been dropped. I said a prayer over Mary’s grave and left flowers. It was a very sad place, without any peace.

On the day I went there, I got pulled further and further back into the walled grounds. I saw an angel and it was at the rear. There was a massive angel over a grave of a beloved sister and a historic marker for the Lady in Black. There was an oppressive energy across her grave. Apparently she traveled from Atlanta by train every week to mourn over her sister’s plot until her own death. I pulled out my camera and took shots. I prayed a prayer of Jesus over both plots. All of a sudden my intuition went off. A young Southern man showed up behind the wall. He was carrying a paper bag with groceries. He wasn’t menacing. He quietly said hello. I told him what I was doing. He said,”You should go now.” I asked him why and he answered, “Women are attacked here and raped. I want you leave as soon as possible so nothing bad happens to you.” I told him thank you and when I looked up again, he was no longer on the dirt road or in the woods behind the wall. That was enough for me. I realized I had been sucked back to the furthest part of the grounds. I ran out of there. It must have taken me more than twenty minutes to get to the front gate.

When I thought about it later, everything about that man felt angelic and everything about that marker felt demonic. Later that evening I dreamt about that sister and saw that she was very violent. She literally chased me out of the grounds and told me I was not welcome. To this day I am convinced the kind man was an angel. There was nowhere for him to go and be out of sight that quickly. I never returned to that place. I later found out that teenager’s held dark rituals there after midnight. In all my travels I had never been to a more evil vortex.