Beginning With The End

This seems like as good a place as any to begin, with the road leading north past Shady Grove Cemetery in Clarendon Arkansas. We were told by the town historian, that this is the cemetery where William Henry Witherspoon and his wife Emily Catherine Witherspoon are buried. It was explained to us that while they are designated on the plot map as reposing here, there may be no markers.


As the sun was setting over Shady Grove, and our day was ending in Clarendon The Kelley branch of the Witherspoon clan was fanned out across the cemetery. Olive had the stick drawing prepared by the receptionist in the town hall while on the phone with the town's historian, "Go through the main entrance with the arch, to the intersection in the roadway. Park here. Go 7 rows to the west. Look for 'Henry Robinson' and they will be nearby."

An hour and a half later, Roger was wandering down by the railroad tracks, Olive was taking a bearing on the setting sun and reviewing the map for secret messages, and I was pacing off rows for the umpteenth time. We found the Robinson marker in the first row, by the entrance without an arch--no Witherspoons. It was decided we would come back again, and try to meet with the historian on-site.

This was, however, a very Kelley outing, I thought to myself, as I watched the sun setting over the rice paddies--each of is moving in different directions, with our own private thoughts, yet connected somehow as a family. As if on cue, a freight train whistle blew as it passed at the western edge of the cemetery. No doubt, Grammy Kelley (Nelly Ethel Witherspoon) listened many evenings to a train whistle blowing as a young girl, growing up in town here, 80 years ago.