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Bronze urn containing the remains of LaSalle Corbell Pickett. The inscription reads "LaSalle Corbell
Pickett (Mrs. General George E. Pickett").
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On January 8, 1998, LaSalle Corbell Pickett, widow of Confederate General George E. Pickett, took the first step on a journey that should have begun sixty-seven years ago. Mrs. Pickett's remains were disinterred from an Arlington, Virginia, mausoleum by members of Virginia Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and the Virginia Society, Military Order of Stars and Bars (MOS&B) and taken to Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery, where she will be reburied next to her husband on March 21.
When Mrs. Pickett died in 1931, regulations in place at the time would not allow her to be buried next to her husband in Hollywood (see related story), so she was interred instead in Abbey Mausoleum across the river from her home in Washington, D.C. Although the mausoleum was considered one of the more prestigious burial places in the national capital area, its owners fell on hard times in the mid-1950's and abandoned it after going bankrupt. Burials ceased, and care of the structure eventually passed to the U.S. Marine Corps because of its location adjacent to Henderson Hall, the Marine Corps headquarters facility situated along one edge of Arlington National Cemetery. The Marines did little, if anything, to maintain the mausoleum, and it disintegrated over the years, a victim of neglect and vandalism on a shocking scale.
The once-beautiful mausoleum now lies near ruin, its stained-glass windows and skylights broken out and boarded over, its bronze doors damaged and covered with plywood, and plaster crumbling from its ceilings and littering its marble floors. Although some of the niches have been opened professionally by undertakers and the remains removed to other cemeteries, many have been opened by vandals and damaged.
Last summer it was determined that the structure was no longer safe, and notices went out to the families of those who had been interred there that their loved ones would be relocated to National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Virginia, unless other arrangements were made. The notification process proved to be a difficult task for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Because the mausoleum's records were incomplete and in general disarray and because so much time had elapsed since the last burial had been performed there, the Corps often had no idea how to reach the next of kin or even who they were. In some cases, they didn't even know who had actually been buried in the mausoleum. Among the surprises that awaited Corps officials when they began opening the many unmarked niches and taking inventory was the discovery of Mrs. Pickett's remains.
After seeing a story in The Washington Times that mentioned Mrs. Pickett's presence in the mausoleum, Mrs. Mark R. (Juanita) Allen, then President of Virginia Division, UDC, and Collin Pulley, MOS&B Commander for the Army of Northern Virginia Department, knew that something had to be done to reunite her with "her Soldier." Mrs. Allen and Mr. Pulley contacted the oldest direct Pickett descendant and sought the family's permission to move Mrs. Pickett to Hollywood Cemetery and reinter her there as a joint UDC-MOS&B effort. Permission was given, and thus began the process that resulted in the January 8 removal of Mrs. Pickett's urn from the mausoleum.
The exterior of Abbey Mausoleum |
Rotting boards cover what was once a beautiful stained-glass window |
Vandals have wreaked havoc on the inside of the mausoleum |
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| Thomas Hornbaker removes Mrs. Pickett's urn from its niche (middle of top row). |
Mrs. Pickett was spared the attention of vandals over the years by virtue of her location in the top row of niches, some 14 feet off the floor of the mausoleum. What had been a blessing, however, presented a formidable obstacle for Thomas E. Hornbaker when it came time to remove the urn from its resting place. A funeral director from Joseph Gawler's Sons, Inc., the Washington, D.C., funeral home that had handled Mrs. Pickett's burial in 1931, Hornbaker quickly discovered that the ladder he had brought with him would not reach as far as the top row. After the Marine Corps supplied a ladder of the requisite length, Mr. Hornbaker ascended to Mrs. Pickett's niche, his only illumination in the blackness of the mausoleum being the flashlights of those who watched from the floor below. A quick examination of the face plate revealed that it had been cemented back into place after having been opened during the inventory of the mausoleum and could not be removed with a crowbar. Several expertly placed blows from Mr. Hornbaker's hammer cracked the stone and allowed him to reach into the niche and secure the urn.
After the urn was delivered into the waiting arms of Mrs. John H. (Nancy) Gum, President of Virginia
Division, UDC and Dan McGuire, Commander of the Virginia Society, MOS&B, it was transported to
Richmond by members of the UDC. Before giving the urn over to David Gilliam, general manager of Hollywood Cemetery, for safekeeping, the committee members visited General Pickett's tomb and placed his widow's
remains on the ledge of the imposing monument for a few moments, thus reuniting the Picketts for the
first time since the Generals' death in 1875. The urn was then placed in an unmarked niche in
the cemetery's open-air mausoleum on the banks of the James River, where it will remain until it is
removed for the last leg of Mrs. Pickett's long-overdue journey on March 21.
The General and his lady, together again |
Nancy Gum, Virginia UDC President, and Greg Collins of the Virginia Society, MOS&B with Mrs. Pickett's urn in Hollywood Cemetery |
Virginia Division, UDC and the Virginia Society, MOS&B wish to expresses our thanks and appreciation to the many people who have assisted us in our efforts to return Mrs. Pickett to her rightful place at her husband's side: