Atkinson County

This is one of the most impressive vernacular markers I’ve ever documented. If you’re familiar with the Nettles Death Masks in Alabama, I consider this marker as important as those masks. Down a sandy road, this small rural cemetery in Sandy Bottom is likely not threatened by development but by time and location. The ledger stone is cracked and the marker is leaning forward.

I was unable to find a great deal about Bessie and her family. She was married to a man who was 20 years older than she was. Her parents were John and Amelia “Mealie” McKnight and her husband was Lonnie Jones. On her birth certificate, it was revealed she died due to malaria.