Folk Art in Texas Page: 58

                                
AT REST: FOLK ART IN TEXAS CEMETERIES

be a quick clue to the ethnic identity of settlers in
a given area. The foreign languages I have found most
frequently on East Texas markers are Spanish, Ger-
man, Czech, and Polish. Occasionally one can even
find two languages used on a single gravemarker; the
St. Joseph-Elmina Cemetery in Walker County has
several markers with Polish on one side and English
on the other.

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Figure 9. A colorful gravemarker decorated with a large red
reflector and multicolored marbles. The half circle at the top
is steel reinforcing rod imbedded in the concrete, Beauty Rest
Cemetery, Calvert, Texas.
The folk art in Texas cemeteries is not directed
exclusively at designing gravemarkers. A great effort
is also expended in decorating the gravesites. The
materials and methods used to decorate these areas
reflect both the imagination and the sense of tradi-
tion of their creators. Also, due to the fact that
gravesite decorations are often less durable than
gravemarkers and sometimes require more frequent
maintenance, they can reflect a continuing concern
and caring by friends or family of the deceased.

Flowers continue to be one of the most popular
gravesite decorations. Bunches of brightly colored
plastic flowers are found on graves in many rural and
small-town cemeteries, regardless of religious or
ethnic affiliation. In recent years, silk flowers have
become more popular but are less durable and more
expensive than plastic. Some flowers are simply laid
on the grave or gravemarker; others are placed in
some type of container. The variety of containers used
is limitless. In several Madison County cemeteries
coffeepot flower holders are an accepted decoration
for a gravesite. These are not old, dented, and stained
coffeepots, but rather nice, shiny percolators.
Not all cemetery flowers are artificial, of course;
many cemeteries contain bulbs, flowering bushes, and
trees that bloom annually. Some gravesites are also
carefully planted with live flowers and tended
regularly. Mexican-American cemeteries tend to be
very colorful in decoration with many flowers and
religious ornamentations; these gravesites in the
Mexican-American section of the Wheelock Cemetery
(Figure 10) are heavily gardened with bright flower-
ing plants. Gardened plots such as these require a
great deal of care. Water must be brought in regularly
to keep the plants alive through the heat of a Texas
summer. Many of the caretakers of small cemeteries
also admire Texas wildflowers and will carefully mow
around patches which bloom every spring and sum-
mer. Growth patterns also indicate that some
wildflowers are seeded on burial plots. Bluebonnets
(the state flower) are especially popular, and seeds
are readily available.
The gardened plot discussed above (Figure 10) con-
tains decorative objects other than flowers. Such ob-
jects may or may not be homemade, and they could
be intended as religious, sentimental, or simply
decorative pieces, but the means in which they are
used makes them a part of the folk design of the
cemetery landscape. The deer beside the gravesite
in Figure 11 are normally used as lawn ornaments.
In the cemetery, they could indicate that the person
buried in this East Texas grave liked deer, or perhaps
his family and friends simply liked this form of decora-
tion. Gravesites in the nearby Alabama-Coushatta In-
dian Reservation Cemetery display an array of ob-
jects that might commonly be found in the home

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