When volunteers begin to clear invasive privet bushes from the Ferris Cemetery in 2019, several workers, including James Jordan and Doug Gilpin, noted a small tombstone hidden in the brush. It read “Marie Hennessee - July 19, 1936”. It had always been thought that R.T. Taylor’s burial in 1906 was the last. Who was this Marie Hennessee and why was there only one date on her stone?

Rumor had it that vandals stole Marie’s stone from the Cox Cemetery, west of White Rock Lake; but investigation showed there were no Hennessees buried in the Cox Cemetery. Recent research by Marilyn Kosanke identifies Marie’s parents to be George Thomas Hennessee, Jr. and Marie Shrum who married Sept. 30, 1934. George’s mailing address was “Rhenhart” Service Station, a reference to Reinhardt, TX near the Ferris Cemetery. The Federal Census of 1940 shows the Hennessees living in Potter County, TX, but also states that they were living in Dallas in 1935.

Generally, according to our researcher, when only one date is given on a gravestone, it indicates an infant who died at birth; often no death certificate was issued. Mary Shrum Hennessee probably had a stillborn or premature baby who was both born and died on July 19, 1936.

Marie Shrum’s uncle Robert E. Shrum was buried in the Cox Cemetery in 1909 and her grandmother Laura Jane Trout Shrum was buried there in 1933. It would be likely that Marie would inter her deceased baby near her relatives in the Cox Cemetery.

Thus, we conclude, based on current evidence, that Marie Hennessee’s gravestone belongs near the Shrum graves at the Cox Cemetery.

Written by Susanne Starling, June 2022, based on research by Marilyn Kosanke.