Tombstone Tuesday - Ida B. Slesser (1861-1935)

Ida B. Slesser died on 5 January 1935^[1] and was laid to rest the following day at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.^[2] A gravestone with a brief inscription marks her burial location. Commentary follows the photo image:

Photo by Neil Loftiss, 2011, used with permission.

Commentary:

This photograph came from a Find A Grave memorial for Ida B. Slesser^[3]. The memorial describes the marker location as being in Section 23 of Forest Hill Cemetery Midtown at 1661 Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee.

The death certificate reports Ida's birthdate as 26 February 1862, while the marker inscription has 26 February 1861. The date used on the gravestone would have been chosen with greater care and probably after consulting personal records, whereas the date supplied on the death certificate was likely given in a moment of stress. Based on this evidence alone, the 1861 date is favored.

---

1. "Shelby County Death Records, 1848-1963," digital images, Shelby County Register of Deeds (http://register.shelby.tn.us : accessed 15 December 2014); death certificate file no. 319, registration no. 245, Ida B. Slesser, 5 January 1935, Tennessee, State Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, Nashville. [See blog post: Sympathy Saturday - Passing of Ida B. Slesser, 1935, Memphis, Shelby Co., TN.] ^↩
2. Ibid., item 18, "Burial, Cremation or Removal Place: Forest Hill, Date: 1-6-35." ^↩
3. Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 22 December 2014), memorial page for Ida B. Slesser (1861-1935), Find A Grave Memorial no. 75,327,845, citing Forest Hill Cemetery Midtown, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee; accompanying photograph by Neil Loftiss of the face of the gravestone. ^↩