In Search Of An Innocent Man

I had some spare time this morning. After opening gifts from my parents (a hobby box of Obak, two boxes of 9 pocket pages and a D-ring binder), I had some time to kill before having lunch with my mom at Wonderburgers on 110th & Kedzie.

In researching my WSC Vintage card of Buck Weaver, I discovered that his grave was only a few miles from my house. It was also literally around the corner from where I was having lunch. So, armed with a section number and a direction of "by the road" thanks to findagrave.com, I went searching for George D. Weaver, one of the members of the 1919 White Sox team that was banned from baseball for life.

As many of you know from reading the papers, Illinois graveyards appear to be in shambles. The cemeteries may look nice and innocent, but some of the older ones are a jumbled mess. Unfortunately, this was one of those graveyards. It certainly isn't as infamous as Burr Oak, close by, but it can be just as confusing.

My own personal preference makes me start out any journey by searching on foot. I can usually locate a grave with enough information. I even once stumbled upon Al Capone's grave without any clue to where it was located inside Mt. Carmel Cemetery. I looked all along the road in section 35 and started a few rows away from the road. Still nothing.

The weather was nice today, so I stayed about an hour looking at the different headstones. Unlike any other cemetery experience two workers, who were very pleasant, asked if I needed any help. I told them who I was looking for, but they couldn't help me. The workers told me to ask in the office and I could obtain a map.

I thanked them for their help and headed back to the car. I will stop in the office at some point, but not today. I had a lunch to get to.

The image of Buck Weaver's headstone is from findagrave.com. I intend to have my own photo, after properly locating the grave site.