History is alive in Brownwood's Greenleaf Cemetery

BROWNWOOD – Ever notice if there’s a funeral in a movie, it’s always raining?

With that in mind, I visited Greenleaf Cemetery on a day when the weather promised the cemetery would live up to that billing.

Why make a trip in the rain to a graveyard? Why, to see Robert E. Howard’s tombstone, of course.

Besides, the last time I’d been here was in December for the Holiday Trail of Lights. The cemetery association planted solar-powered holiday lights around the grounds, illuminating markers and inviting the public to drive through. While it was neat to look at, I never saw the older markers that were unlit.

Turning over new leaf

It’s a significant year for Greenleaf, and not just because it turned 150 years old. The cemetery has been pulling itself back together in the wake of a former office manager who pleaded guilty in January to embezzling more than $23,000.

“We're just doing a slow crawl out,” said Steve Harris, the current board president. “That was devastating, it really was. We were so far in the hole; the task for this board has been huge.”

Part of that task has been figuring out how to raise money for the cemetery. My dad had a joke he used to tell whenever we’d drive past a graveyard: “People are dying to get in there.”

But these days, that’s not enough to support a cemetery.

“It's unfortunate but for most cemeteries of our size and age, the business model is just not sustainable,” Harris said. “You have to have fundraisers.”

A film festival?

Which brings me back to Robert E. Howard, the creator of "Conan the Barbarian."

There was a time in my youth where I devoured Howard’s stories about his Cimmerian creation. At the time, I never thought I would ever get to visit the communities where Howard conceived of his literary creations but I have, and that idea still fascinates me to this day.

If that connection drew me to Greenleaf, it follows that others might be drawn in through their own interests, too.

“As I was weeding out the cemetery, I came across a tombstone that had an image of a truck and a travel trailer,” Harris recalled. It sparked an idea.

It reminded him that a group of Airstream trailer enthusiasts are holding in downtown Brownwood something called "Texas Country Air," billed the “largest urban camping experience in the United States.” Somehow, Harris knew there was a way to connect the trailer folks with Greenleaf and raise money for the cemetery in the process.

“It was the movie, ‘The Long, Long Trailer’ that popped into my head,” he said, naming a 1953 comedy starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as newlyweds who invest in a trailer instead of a house, and then hit the road.

“And then I thought, ‘Why not do the Robert E Howard movie, since he's buried out there?’” Harris continued. “Because we're going to have a lot of people downtown during the three days the Airstreamers are here, that would be a good way for to raise funds, and tie downtown to the cemetery, as well.”

The other film, “The Whole, Wide World,” is 1996 drama starring Vincent D’Onofrio and Renée Zellweger. It’s based on the memoir of a former schoolteacher who knew Howard for a time before his death in 1936.

Both films will be shown at the Lyric Theatre on Saturday,“The Long, Long Trailer” at 2:30 p.m., and “The Whole, Wide World” at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5.

“Then I read somewhere about this guy down in Austin, and he's doing a documentary on Airstream trailers,” Harris said. “The movie is not finished, so he sent us a trailer.”

He paused for a moment, thinking over what he’d just said.

“The movie trailer, not the ‘trailer-trailer’,” Harris amended, laughing.

That film, “Alumination”, will be a feature-length documentary by Eric Bricker about Airstream travel trailers and the people who love them.

Who's who in Greenleaf

Howard might be the most famous person buried in Greenleaf, but he’s certainly not the only notable one. City fathers, Texas Rangers, cowboys and soldiers are all buried there, including perhaps Brownwood’s first woman football coach.

Tylene Wilson was a teacher and principal in Brownwood ISD while many of the area’s young men left to fight in World War II, including the head coach at Daniel Baker College. During that time, Wilson became the head coach.

There weren’t enough details about Wilson’s life to make a biography, but former sportswriter Marjorie Lewis was able to gather enough information to write her historically-based novel “When the Men Were Gone.” The book was published earlier this month.

“I'm a native of Brownwood,” Harris said. “I was born here, and I didn't even know this story.” He added that Lewis will visit Greenleaf at 2 p.m. Sunday for a meet-and-greet.

November will be a little slower than October has been for the cemetery. But Harris promises the Holiday Lights Trail will return for the last two weekends of the year with twice as many solar-powered lights, thanks to a $1,000 grant from Kohler.

“This is a prime example of what happens when you do something unique and different, and then the community comes out and support you,” he said. “You know, it's greener at Greenleaf.

"We're still having services, we're still laying people to rest and we’re taking care of business.”