Katie Virden unearths buried headstone
Cleveland resident, Katie Virden, was doing some ordinary yard work and planting recently when she made a very unordinary — and very bizarre — discovery.
An Art and Ceramics teacher at Cleveland Central High School for the past 23 years, Virden said she finally decided to dig up something in her garden, while she was planting some fruit trees, that she had been meaning to do for some time.
“I had always thought this object in the ground was a turtle stepping stone, and I’d seen it thousands of times before in my backyard,” said Virden. “But, when I dug it up with my shovel and turned it over, I saw that it was actually a headstone! I literally almost fell out right then and there.”
The stone is marked, “Edgar P. Bates, Texas, Lt. Col., U.S. Air Force Res, World War II, Korea” and Virden said she has no idea how the stone came to be in her yard but took to social media right away to get some information.
“It’s funny because I had recently thought about getting off of Facebook entirely, but I did post a photo of the headstone in hopes of someone possibly knowing something,” she said. “I also asked what I needed to do — contact an agency or try and reach out to somebody who might know. I did get some feedback but, on my own, I went on Google and found my own information on Edgar Bates.”
From her initial research on the name, Virden found absolutely no connection with Barnes to the Delta or Cleveland area. However, she did find some family information in Texas and as far away as Portland. “Plus, I discovered that he died in 1968 in a car accident and is buried in San Antonio,” she said.
Virden also learned from a comment on her Facebook post that sometimes Veterans Affairs will give family members duplicate headstones of servicemen and women and perhaps that’s what she found in her yard. But — still no clue how it made it to Cleveland.
Virden has lived in the house for 15 years which was once owned by Clemmie Collins, who was also the former owner of what is now Neysa’s Fireside Shop.
“She was a big antique collector, so I was always finding little sculptures and other odds and ends buried in the yard. There were irises planted around where I found the headstone, though, and they come up every year,” she said. “That leads me to believe that maybe a little memorial was made for Mr. Barnes by somebody — but, based on the year of his passing, it wouldn’t have been that long ago. It’s baffling, to say the least.”
She still has the headstone and plans to keep it — for the time being.
“I don’t know what else I should do with it, honestly,” she said. “It’s very heavy and bulky and at least two feet tall. And, frankly, it’s a little unnerving, so I propped it up in my garden where I can’t see the inscription. I’m not going to throw it out — I’m okay with it staying there until and unless it’s claimed. As I said, I was planting the day I found the headstone so now I call that part of my garden ‘Edgar’s Orchard!’”
Virden said she’s not a believer in ghosts, but a very strange thing suddenly started occurring since her find.
“I have a Bose radio on my sun porch,” she said. “And now, most mornings at 5:00 a.m., it just cuts on by itself. That had never happened before I dug up the headstone. And it always comes on the Delta State radio station, The Trail!”
If anyone has any information on the headstone, Virden said she would welcome an email to katievirdenart@gmail.com.
