Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Seeking Zathah

I spent some time today in the Wickliffe, Kentucky cemetery. I have some family buried there and went to check on the graves. After I had done that I decided I would wander around a bit and look for some names that might make good characters in a book. I started snapping photos of tombstones as reminders. I also took some photos of tombstones that were interesting for one reason or another.

As I was driving out of the cemetery I spotted another unusual tombstone and just snapped a photo from the car. Then, a few feet away, I saw the stone below. I took a photo because it was a name I had never seen before. Zathah Lee Glenn. Zathah.



So, tonight I google for Zathah. And I find a geneaology page at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~modade/martin.htm that says:


Dalmus Clarence Martin was born on 2 Jul 1909 in Prague, Lincoln Co. OK.  He died on 19 Jan 2004 in Salina, Saline Co. KS.  Dalmus married Zathah Glenn Overstreet, daughter of Mac D. Overstreet and Mary Jane Lipe, on 15 Oct 1939 in Hutchinson, Reno Co. KS.  Zathah was born on 14 Jun 1914 in Murphysboro, Jackson Co. IL.  She died on 6 Aug 1990.


From “Kansas Obituaries,” http://homepages.rootsweb.com/
~overstrt/obits/ksobits.html:  Dalmus C. Martin, 94, Salina,(Kansas) died Monday, Jan. 19. (2004) He was born July 2, 1909, in Prague, Okla. He was a chef and restaurant owner for 58 years, retiring in 1985. He and his wife managed the Wareham Coffee shop for many years. He was preceded in death by his wife, Zathah Glenn Overstreet-Martin in August, 1990. . . .”


Okay... am I the only one who thinks it is very weird that I find an odd name in a cemetery in the county I'm from in Kentucky, google for it and the first thing I look at on the web is about a person who got married in the town where I now live, some states away? How many towns are there in the US? And they happen to have a connection to the one town where I live?

There's also a myspace page of someone with that name and they live in Wichita, less than an hour from Hutchinson, where I live. The other reference to the name online is in a cell phone forum. About the phone I carry.

I'm sure there's some mysterious, deep meaning I am supposed to divine from this, but at the moment I'm just struck by the oddness of it all.