The Texarkana Museum System played to a sold out crowd Saturday night as curator Jamie Simmons led the group down a darkening path of the State Line Cemetery complex during the "Talking Dead" living history tour. As crisp air settled upon the headstones and monuments, the State Line traffic roar faded as group made their way down the path. Simmon's calm voice related details about the cemetery.
"The State Line Cemetary is actually a system of five cemeteries that grew together over time," she said. "These include primary cemetery, Masonic section, African-American section, Mt. Sinai Memorial Garden, and Woodlawn Cemetery. They started at different points and are noted for various cultural traits." Along the tour, reenactors representing people buried at each of the five cemeteries shared stories of their lives, providing historical insight about Texarkana. Many of them were key figures in Texarkana years ago. The explorers encountered their first "spirit" in the Masonic section, who regaled them with the tale of Dr. Nettie Marx Kline, a pioneer in medical practice in Texarkana. She described her family moving from Woodville, Mississippi, in 1864 to escape the ravages of the American Civil War. They settled in Jefferson, Texas, where Klein grew up. Eventually, she moved to Texarkana with her parents, where they built a house on Pine Street, not far from the Ace of Clubs House.
"I completed my education at the Notre Dame Convent in Milwaukee, Wisconsin," she said. "I later married Larry Klein, but tragically, he died two years later. I eventually attended medical school, starting in Dallas, then eventually Harvard. I finished at the New York Polyclinic. I returned to Texarkana, passed the Texas and Arkansas boards in 1904 and 1905. I then joined the staff of the Pine Street Sanitarium as resident pathologist and anesthetist."
Klein died in Texarkana in 1931.
Another soul contemplating the cemetery was Mrs. Cornelia Cook. She was sitting when the attendees arrived, but seemed in a talkative mood, telling a tale of women realizing full citizen rights in her day.
"In March of 1918, Arkansas granted women the right to vote," said Cook. "I had an unfortunate ailment which partially paralyzed me, but that did not stop me from casting my first vote at the age of 80. Imagine my pride that day. It was a thrilling experience, let me tell you. Unfortunately, that was also my last, as I died of October of that year."
The two ladies were but two examples of the shades who regaled the venturing scholars with tales of their pasts as well as that of Texarkana. They heard from a pioneering student who forged a path for black students seeking to study the law in Arkansas, as well as his experiences as a soldier serving in World War II. Two other women told tales as educators, guiding the new generations coming up in historic times, as well as serving in the wars that roiled the first half of the 20th century.
These figures may be gone, but their stories, and through them, the past of Texarkana, still lives, for those who pause long enough to listen.
Next up
TMS will host a downtown tour titled "Death and Dying: Customs and Curiosities" on Halloween night, Oct. 31. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., the tour will take attendees to downtown locations for discussion about the strange and eerie traditions of the past. It's part of the TMS Texarkana Twilight Tours series and includes a living history performance.
TMS Curator Jamie Simmons said they will take a Halloween-ish approach, but it is essentially a historically-themed walk through downtown.
"What we're going to be doing is we're going to be walking through the downtown area, talking about the general history of Texarkana but also specific spots where we can tell a story about how the Victorians and Edwardians and people in the early 20th Century viewed death and how they handled it," Simmons said.
"Seeing these buildings and locations at twilight gives them a different character. We can also tell them stories they haven't heard before," Simmons said. "Stories that might be a little different from what we traditionally tell about the downtown area. We're not specifically going for haunted, but we are going for a different view of the history of our downtown area seen at a different time. Literally and figuratively in a different light."
To find out who will visit the tour as part of the living history portion, people need to sign up and attend, Simmons said.
The Museums System will provide flashlights for the tour, but attendees can bring their own, too. Staff will wear masks and they're suggesting attendees wear them. However, as the tour is outside there's more of a chance to spread out and practice social distancing.
Tickets are $15 per person, $10 for Texarkana Museums System members. Advance registration is required at www.TexarkanaMuseums.org/Events or the TMS page on Facebook. For more information, call 903-793-4831.
(Gazette reporter Aaron Brand contributed to this report.)