The 175-year-old Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum stretches over a sprawling 314 acres. The cemetery is the final resting place of St. Louis icons like John and Mary Meachum, Priscilla “Mother” Baltimore and William Clark, just to name a few.
Bellefontaine offers guided tours year-round, but every fall, the cemetery collaborates with Hawthorne Players for a special storytelling experience called “Voices at Bellefontaine.”
The theatrical experience is performed inside the cemetery. Guests ride a trolley to three stops throughout the grounds to hear monologues written and directed by Larry Marsh.
The event originated at Valhalla Cemetery in Normandy in 2010.
“We were approached with the possibility of doing plays or monologues in the cemetery, bringing folks who were there to life, briefly,” Marsh said. “I thought, ‘Will this really work?’ Astonishingly, we ended up with sold-out performances, [with] people camped out as if we were rock stars.”
The production moved to Bellefontaine in 2022, switching the format from nighttime hayrides to daytime performances. Marsh said the switch helped reinforce that the event is about real people and their life stories, rather than being a more kitschy, spooky-scary event.
With a deep wealth of stories to tell at Bellefontaine, cemetery chronicler Dan Fuller works closely with Marsh to decide which narratives will be brought to life each year. Even with his near-encyclopedic knowledge of the stones and stories waiting inside the gates, Fuller discovers new information all the time.
Recently, his team uncovered the story of one of the world’s most recognizable clowns — Ringling Brothers’ Harry Dann.
“[It was] a surprise to me, [as] he is at the cemetery unmarked,” Fuller said. “The interesting thing that I saw in my cursory review is the fact that for a decade after his death, they kept using his image.”
Dann’s story has not been brought to the stage yet, but among those that have are the stories of Mary and John Meachum, prolific African American abolitionists and educators. While John Meachum is buried at Bellefontaine, Mary Meachum’s grave remains empty, but with a marker denoting her plot. These types of graves are called cenotaphs.
“It is memorialization without human remains,” Fuller explained. “Even though we know that she died in 1869, her final place of rest is still undisclosed at this point.”
The Meachums’ story is known by some, but there are many other, lesser-known St. Louisans with connections to those living in the region today. Finding those connections is another important part of what Marsh and Fuller strive to bring forth with “Voices.”
“Very often these stories are connected somehow. There is an arc to the things that are being told.” Marsh said. “We have two characters who are very much important in St. Louis education. One is the first female assistant superintendent of St. Louis Public Schools. She mentors some students, and they are part of what became a small literary group. Then, a young woman [from that group] produced this literary and artistic journal that then became known.”
The script changes every year to highlight different and diverse stories. This year’s event has passed, but as Fuller and his team work to rediscover the “voices” buried at Bellefontaine, Marsh and Hawthorne players intend to continue the annual October tradition for years to come.
To hear more about the Voices of Bellefontaine event and more stories from the cemetery, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
