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.

Christ Church, St. Simons Island

St. Simons Island is draped with as much history as it is Spanish Moss.  Driving through the live oak lined roads, you are as likely to see a former slave cabin like Hazel's Cafe as you are to see a beautiful white clapboard church like Christ Church. Christ Church is the former parish of Charles Wesley.  His brother, John Wesley, also worked to establish a church for the people of St. Simons and Fort Frederica.
The cemetery next to Christ Church is full of stories and is the final resting place of Eugenia Price who used those stories to write novels about St. Simons Island and Georgia.

The tombstones in the cemetery are dark with age, but its obvious by the flags and flower arrangements that someone still cares about the people buried there.  I was intrigued by the tombstone with a tiny statue of a puppy and the inscription "As we looked steadfastly on him, we saw his face, as it had been the face of an angel."