Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah

You can't take a trip to the coast of Georgia without making a stop in Savannah! This time I wanted to visit historic Bonaventure Cemetery - a cemetery that has been in existence since the 1800's and is the final resting place of politicians and celebrities alike.  Bonaventure is draped with Spanish moss and you can imagine how spooky it would be at night.  It was featured in John Berendt's book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and became famous for the Bird Girl statue pictured on the front of the book.  The Bird Girl is no longer there, having been moved to the Telfair Museum to protect it from the many visitors who came to see her.

Probably the most famous person buried in Bonaventure is Johnny Mercer, composer of hundreds of familiar songs, and his burial site will remind visitors of them for years to come.  The bench next to his gravestone lists the most popular of his songs and features his signature.  His epitaph is "And the Angels Sing".  The epitaph on his wife's grave is "You must of been a beautiful baby", the title of another one of his songs.

I was impressed with the intricate detail of the gates and fencing surrounding many of the graves.  Here's just one of the iron gates found there.

And as always, there were lots of angels - sweet, contemplative expressions or fat-cheeked, cherub-like cuties.