By Jessica Gorman
This is one of those weeks where I thought I was writing about one thing but quickly realized that a different story was asking to be told. I originally intended to share another interesting, and probably lesser-known, burial in the Minden Cemetery.
Hillary Warren Garrett was born 6 March 1867 in Claiborne Parish. He was the youngest child of John Lumpkin Garrett and Elizabeth Ann Jarvis. His mother died when he was only nineteen days old. His father passed away the following February. Hillary was raised by his oldest sister, Margaret. He was less than two years old when his oldest brother left and headed west. That brother was none other than Sheriff Pat Garrett. Yes, that Pat Garrett. The same one who shot and killed Billy the Kid in 1881. As I learned more about Hillary Garrett, I came across the story of his son, Wideman Rhon “Jack” Garrett.
On the morning of 3 July 1932, Jack Garrett, Miss Billy Wilson, and a group of friends had gone swimming in Bayou Dorcheat. They were on a sandbar about a mile north of the railroad bridge at Sibley when Jack and Miss Wilson lost their balance and fell into deeper water. Miss Wilson couldn’t swim. As Jack tried to save her, he disappeared below the surface.
Nearby, Drue Dial was fishing. He heard the frantic cries, dove into the bayou, and pulled Miss Wilson to safety. It was then that he was alerted to the fact that Jack had never resurfaced. Dial was a neighbor to the Garretts on Buchanan Street. He did all that he could to find Jack but to no avail.
In response to a call for help, Carlos Green, a former lifeguard, arrived at the scene. He dove in search of the body and, over an hour after he was last seen, Jack Garrett’s body was pulled from the bayou. He was 26 years old. His father, Hillary, died just two months later. Both are buried in the Minden Cemetery.
Eleven years later, Drue Dial was in Hawaii working as chief of an auxiliary fire department for naval air bases in Hawaii. At the time of the drowning, Carlos Green was employed at the Dennis Funeral Home in Minden. He later became one of the owners, the name changing to Green-Kleinegger Funeral Home. So far, I’ve been unsuccessful at identifying Miss Billy Wilson. I can’t help but wonder who she was and what happened to her.
(Jessica Gorman is Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, Webster Parish Historian, President of the Minden Cemetery Association, and an avid genealogist.)