Judge Isaac C. Parker

(Photographed by the Writer)

 

Fort Smith National Cemetery is the final resting place for Judge Parker. He doesn't have a birth or death date inscription;* I inquired with the curator and he didn't have an answer. On a subsequent visit to the cemetery, I again inquired about the inscription. The assistant curator of Fort Smith National Cemetery states, "Judge Parker wanted to remain in the shadows and background of society and didn't want to draw any attention, hence, he requested this very plain headstone." There are only three "national cemeteries" in Arkansas.

The once-small cemetery at Fort Smith has been expanded and today it totals 22.3 acres. Many of the private monuments in the national cemetery face west, in the opposite direction of government furnished headstones. This is in accordance with a religious custom in some Arkansas communities to bury the dead with the feet to the east so that on Resurrection Day the body will arise facing east. The inscription is facing west as it is believed that a person, when reading the headstone, would be in a proper position (facing east) to say a prayer for the deceased. Source: Department of Veterans Affairs

(Photographed by the Writer)

(Photographed by the Writer)