December 12, 2011

Today, My wife Barbara and I went to the West Point Cemetery in Liberty, Indiana to see if we could find the family graves that are located there. The family members that we knew were buried there are: Merkie Madden (Aunt), Irene Hunter (Aunt), Johnie Marcum (Uncle), Lily Marcum (Johnie's wife & Aunt by marriage), Melvin Marcum (First Cousin & son of Johnie & Lily Marcum), Ruth Marcum (Sister of Lily Marcum)and Rick Marcum (Son of Ruth Marcum). There is a small placard on Ruth Marcum's headstone with Rick's name, birth date and date of death on it, which means, according to the guy that runs the cemetery, that Rick's ashes (Cremains) are also buried in Ruth's plot. Also, since Lily Marcum had just passed away when these pictures were taken, her date of death, which was November 28, 2011, was not yet added to her gravestone.

These graves are all fairly close together and the only one we had any real trouble in locating was that of Irene Hunter. But, we were lucky in that the guy, Steve, that runs the cemetery was in the brick building that day, where they work on tombstones, and we got him to look up the location of Irene's grave. And, as it turned out, Irene's grave is totally unmarked. Her grave is located between the headstones of Clark and Barrett, in section 5A, plot #11. In the picture of Irene's grave plot there is a staff with a scarf hanging on it to mark the center of Irene's grave. This staff was put there temporarily and was put back in it's original place immediately after the picture was taken. According to the genealogical research done by Joyce Carl, of Sand Gap, KY, Irene's full birth name was Minnie Irene Marcum, she was born on July 21, 1927 and died on July 29, 1971 at age 44. Steve showed himself to be a very kind and helpful gentleman and seemed very happy to help us find the graves we were looking for.

The GPS coordinates of the graves are as follows:

Irene Hunter's Grave: N39 38.382 x W84 56.402

Ruth & Rick Marcum's Grave: N39 38.372 x W84 56.385

America (Merkie) Madden's Grave: N39 38.375 x W84 56.389

Melvin Marcum's Grave: N39 38.378 x W84 56.388

Johnie & Lily's Grave: N39 38.374 x W84 56.385


Written by James J. Carl on Dec. 12, 2011

Links To Family Member's Headstone Pictures

Link To Johnie & Lily Marcum's Headstone
Link To Melvin Marcum's Headstone
Link To America (Merkie) Madden's Headstone
Link To Irene Hunter's Gravesite
Link To Ruth & Rick Marcum's Headstone
Map Of Graves, With GPS Coordinates