Citizens Cemetery

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Citizens Cemetery
Citizens Cemetery
Details
Location
Hamar Street, Beaufort, South Carolina, U.S.
Coordinates 32°26′21″N80°40′52″W / 32.43930°N 80.68120°W / 32.43930; -80.68120
Owned byCity of Beaufort
Find a Grave Citizens Cemetery

Citizens Cemetery is located on Hamar Street in Beaufort, South Carolina, United States. Sited adjacent to Beaufort National Cemetery, Citizens Cemetery is the "garden" referred to in the title of John Berendt's 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. [1] [2] In the subsequent movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia, was used to represent "the colored cemetery down the road", as described by Kevin Spacey's character, John Kelso. [3] [4] [5]

Minerva, the root doctor in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (portrayed by Irma P. Hall in the movie), is based on Valerie Boles. Boles's common-law partner Percy Washington (1890–1973) is interred in Citizens Cemetery. Also a root doctor, he was known as Dr. Eagle [6] (renamed Dr. Buzzard in the book and movie). [7] Boles and Washington lived at 1408 Congress Street in Beaufort, [8] two blocks east of the cemetery. After Washington's death in 1973, his widow married Edward Boles. [9] [10]

References

  1. Gouveia, Georgette (May 2, 2017). "The Garden Of Good And Evil". Wag. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  2. "Oct 26, 1994, page 41 - The Atlanta Constitution at Atlanta Journal Constitution". Newspapers.com. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  3. Randolph, Eleanor (January 23, 1997). "Graveyard turns into tourist haunt; A bestseller has brought busloads of the curious, and a perilous fame, to an old cemetery in Savannah". Los Angeles Times. p. 5. Archived from the original on October 23, 2012. Retrieved October 31, 2009.
  4. "'Midnight in the Garden' Bonaventure Cemetery". District. March 4, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  5. Berendt, John (1994). Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN   978-0-679-42922-7.
  6. Conjure in African American Society, Jeffrey E. Anderson (2008), p. 118 ISBN   9780807135280
  7. Hazzard-Donald, Katrina (December 30, 2012). Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System. University of Illinois Press. p. 89. ISBN   978-0-252-09446-0.
  8. "LowCountry Root Doctors" South , December 1, 2016
  9. Valerie Fennell Boles – Marshel's Wright-Donaldson Home for Funerals, Inc.
  10. Savannah Morning News, May 15, 2009