Tombstone Tuesday: Willie Kennedy--The Future Is Now!

In January, I made a trip to Morehead City and New Bern, NC to attend the funeral of my grand aunt Rosa Sanders. While down in North Carolina I made it a point to visit a special little cemetery located behind the Mount Olive AME Zion Church in Riverdale, Craven, NC. Well, it was a wonderful visit. I took pictures of my 3rd great grandmother's headstone and several other pictures of my ancestors graves. One of those pictures I took was of the grave of the father-in-law to my my 2nd great grand uncle, Alfred Mitchell. Alfred Mitchell married the daughter of a man named Solomon Allen, a Miss Chloe Allen. Anyway, while I was visiting the cemetery I became so impressed by the size of Mr. Soloman Allen's grave stone and the masonic symbol presented so beautifully on it. As a result, I took several pictures from different angles. Here is one of them.


Solomon's grave is in the forefront and another grave is in the right middle ground of the picture.


Now when I was taking  this picture, my focus was on Solomon Allen's grave. I just didn't notice until later on the other grave that was quite noticeable in the shot. So I decided to crop the shot down on my smart phone.

Now I don't know how many of you out there are familiar with early 1980's SciFi but the movie " Blade Runner" came out during that time and is one of my favorite films. I love cinema, so the movie just resonates with me on many levels...and I am talking about the director's cut (the version without Harrison Ford's annoying voice over.) Anyway, there is this section during the movie, where Harrison Ford's character takes a photograph and uploads it into a machine that allows you to pan through different areas in the shot that reminded me of what to a certain extent we are able to do on today's smart phones. Now take note of the above shot. Now look at what I was able to crop down to on my smart phone and then later upload on to my computer.

Willie Kennedy
October 2, 1899--August 2, 1978 (on headstone)
Gone but not forgotten
Social Security Index--November 2, 1898--August 1978

Now for those of you who are not familiar with the scene I am talking about from "Blade Runner," here's a clip I found on YouTube that shows the scene.

Segment from the movie "Blade Runner."

So who is Willie Kennedy and his relation to Solomon Allen? Okay, so this is what I have found. It looks like that Mr. Willie Kennedy was born a William Kennedy to Solomon's daughter Mariah Allen and her husband Charles Kennedy. That makes him Solomon's grandson. Now we know why he's buried so close.

On a separate note, I can't help but add one of my favorite clips from any movie and it turns out, it is from the same movie mentioned above, "Blade Runner." 





Comments

  1. Nice investigating! When going to the Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton, MA (the old cemetery, where the oldest graves had been dug up and relocated because the city had expanded since its founding)...I took photos of massive amounts of stones all around my King ancestors' stones. I had made a list of every surname in the city related to my family, and then located every grave with those surnames. The result was that most of the founding families were represented there within those names, in that one location. I still need to process many of those stones; but I have them preserved for a later date when I am able to get back to my maternal family's ancestry.

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  2. Thanks Debra. Great job with your investigating too!

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