Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Ga.

This is the Johnny Mercer family plot that was mentioned in the book and movie MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL. For more pictures of the Mercer plot look below. And ppssst! Don't forget to double click on a picture to make it bigger.

When you are in Bonaventure Cemetery there is no doubt you are in a cemetery. It has everything a scary cemetery should have: Spanish moss hanging from thick curvy trees, eccentric markers, and, well, it just looks like the City of the Dead.

And it is the City of the Dead. It has mayors, police chiefs, the elite, and ordinary citizens. The only thing is the citizens are quiet.

It is a huge cemetery It is by a wide river that goes into the numerous water highways that eventually empties into the Atlantic. Out in the water way you can see dolphins playfully come up in pairs and go back under. I saw several dolphin appearances while I was there. I took these pictures when accompanying Anna on a business trip a couple of years ago. While she worked I went to the grave yard and played.

Near the entrance of the cemetery is the Jewish section and a huge Holocaust Memorial.

Below -Robert Anderson was a general for the CSA in the Civil War and sometime near then he was Chief of the Savannah Police Force.



Below - This is where the famous song writer Johnny Mercer and his family are buried – and a few close-up details.


Johnny's grave


Johnny's wife






Johnny's mother

Below - This was the main reason I came to this cemetery. To seek out the Tison family plot. Tison is another way Tyson was spelled years ago. Walter Tison is/was a distant Tyson relative. He first lived in a county east of Brunswick (southwest of Savannah) where he was the county sheriff. Then, he became a broker in Savannah where he and his family apparently spent the rest of their life.







Below - This little girl was Gracie. From what I read her father was owner/manager of one of Savannah’s finest hotels and restaurants. Gracie liked to run and play in the corridors with young guests of her father’s establishment – which she still does, as a ghost.





See the gate? Do you really have to open it to go into the plot?



See the dog statue on the right? Do you suppose the family dog is buried there?



Here are some typical run-of-the-mill markers at Bonaventure Cemetery, as if anything there is run-of-the-mill: