Editor, Sun-Sentinel:
My first encounter with the Petersen Cemetery began when I was a small girl living at home on what is now Taylor Drive.
A white couple from “up North” told my brother D.L. and I, they would give us a shiny new dime if we showed them where the cemetery was so they could locate some of their ancestors.
Our parents were not at home at the time and the lure of a “shiny dime” (greed) was incentive enough for us to disobey their rules about talking to strangers. Even though the whipping we received for being disobedient was very painful, the pain was soon forgotten when we ate the candy that the dime bought.
After thinking about what could have happened to us that day, we knew not to repeat our actions.
After taking the couple to the cemetery we would often go down on the “white” end of the cemetery and look at the pretty headstones dated in the 1800s.
I can remember as a child, how excited we would be on the days when our road was grated and graveled by the county. We would follow behind the road graders, walking in the warm soft dust created along the sides of the road. Now that I am old, I often wonder if people used to live down the road.
During that time, the county always graded and graveled the cemetery road. Was that the reason the road was always kept up? Unfortunately, I lived during an era when children could not openly ask a lot of questions.
I talked to friends from Charleston about my heart’s desire to have the cemetery cleaned and trees cut down. It was recommended that I contact the county office because Sheriff Jimmy Fly had a heart for the community and was willing to allow resources to be used to clean neglected cemeteries.
When I talked to Deputy Sheriff Steve Simmons, he assured me that the board and the sheriff’s department would put resources on it right away. True to his word, the cemetery was cleaned in less than two weeks.
Sheriff Fly lived up to his reputation of being a concerned citizen, dedicated to giving back to the community, and providing our ancestors with a respectable resting place. The Taylor family who used to live on this property are senior citizens living in other parts of the country.
Hats off to the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Jimmy Fly, Deputy Sheriff Steve Simmons and the cleanup crew who cleaned and beautified the undocumented cemetery where our parents and relatives were buried.
From the bottom of our heart, we say thank you, thank you, thank you!
- Dorothy Ellen Taylor Smith
Forest
- Adline Moore-Taylor Henderson
- All living children of Rev. Lawrence and Willie Mae Taylor and siblings of Rev. Paul Taylor
