Visitors to Fort Smith’s historic Oak Cemetery got an earful Monday when 10 of the cemetery’s normally silent residents rose from their graves to tell tales of days gone by. The Oak Cemetery Commission celebrated the Memorial Day by sponsoring its fourth annual Tales of the Crypt event, in which local thespians portray people who are buried in the cemetery and tell stories about their lives. They are trying to show the people the history of Fort Smith, as represented by the people who were the founders, the builders and the frontiersmen, the famous and the infamous. Different people are portrayed at each years event. There is no danger of running out of interesting stories anytime soon. We have 28 people that were hanged by Judge Parker buried here, and over 150 of the deputy marshals that rode for Parker. The founder of Fort Smith is also buried here. The cemetery has over 15,000 stories and we continue to research and present those stories to the public. Among the colorful characters who told their stories on Monday were: ** Lee Hue, a Chinese laundryman who was robbed and murdered. Lee’s funeral was the largest funeral ever held at the cemetery, with virtually the entire Chinese population of Fort Smith – about 500 hundred people. They celebrated from morning till night, putting food and drink and alcohol on his grave so that he would have food for the journey and the mean spirits would eat and not harass him. It was part of their custom. But the interesting thing is, the next morning when the city woke up, every Chinese person in the city had departed….They were scared because of the murder. **Alice B. Eads, the first female deputy U. S. marshal to ride for Judge Parker. Bragged of her role in capturing outlaws, such as Bill Busby, Cherokee Bill, the Buck Gang and Jack Spaniard. **** Gus Bogle, who was hanged for murder in 1888 by Judge Parker. He made two escape attempts before he was hanged. He finally went to the gallows, the rope failed to break his neck and he strangled. ** “Sweet Woman”..for many years if was believed that a gravestone inscribed with the words “Sweet Woman” held the body of Maude Allen, who was shot and killed by the wife of Fort Smith Mayor Fagan Bourland for having an affair with Bourland. In the 1990’s it was discovered that the gravestone held the body of Lorraine Tabor, the wife of a Fort Smith banker. Allen is not buried in Fort Smith. Carolyn (Parsons) Smedley angelears@alltel.net ========================================= Surnames: Clark, DeHart, Eslinger, Goodnight, Heryford, Mincher, Parsons, Smedley, Taylor