10/30/31 - Happy All Hallows Eve - The Witch of Yazoo City makes an appearance at the Halloween Carnival at St Mary's Parish in Yazoo City, Mississippi

Vey McGraw, a parishioner at St Mary parish, portrays the Witch of Yazoo City in cemetery tours and in other public events here in Yazoo City.  She made a grand appearance as the Witch of Yazoo City at our Halloween Carnival this Sunday afternoon.  She read from Willie Morris' stories about the legend of the Witch of Yazoo City.  I am very, very thankful for Vey's appearance today.

10/09/2011 - More photos of the Witch of Yazoo City - beautiful autumn afternoon at Glenwood Cemetery in Yazoo City

Gravestone - Witch of Yazoo City

I placed the red and white roses there. 

The other flowers were already there. 

The "curious chain links" that the Witch of Yazoo City supposedly broke out of in order to burn down the entire city in 1904.  One of the churches where I am pastor burned down in that fire in 1904, to be rebuilt again in 1907. Our church, St Mary, had also burned down a decade earlier, and was rebuilt at great sacrifice only to be burned down again in 1904. 

The "curious chain links" around the grave of the Witch of Yazoo City. 

Grave of Willie Morris

Fountain near the grave of the Witch of Yazoo City. 

Since my post on the Witch of Yazoo City in Glenwood Cemetery has been one of my most popular, I thought I would take some more photos and make another post.  The Witch is a very popular figure in folk lore here in Yazoo City.  Some of the old timers claim that when they were growing up, they were taught that the person buried in what is now known in the witch’s grave was thought to have been a man.  Folk lore and fame have brought the Witch into the popular imagination of our modern American culture and into a life of her own.  

At the Hispanic mass on Sunday afternoons, some of my parishioners often bring flowers to put at the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that we have in church.  I brought the flowers to the gravesite of the Witch.  When I first arrived in Yazoo City a year ago, one of my parishioners told me that she felt sorry for the Witch, especially in the way people treat her. Even on her grave stone, she is called a “vengeful woman” with a “shameful deed.”   On the day that I preached a homily on the respect for human life, I thought it would be the right thing to do to bring the flowers to the Witch’s grave.  There were already some flowers there as well. 

Right near the Witch’s grave is the grave of the wonderful author Willie Morris.  Someone who had a gravesite near the Witch’s gave it up so that Willie Morris could be buried near the Witch, since his writings brought her such fame.