The Daughter They Buried on Paper: Finding Celia Ann's Grave
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The Daughter They Buried on Paper: Finding Celia Ann's Grave
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A buried secret surfaces in a cemetery deed, a labeled photograph, and a single typed hospital document: a baby named Celia lived for three days and was recorded as an unnamed stillbirth in October 1967. How did a father buy a grave in March 1967, a mother keep a photo inside a white envelope for decades, and an infant's name survive only on the back of a picture?
In this episode, we follow the discovery process as an executor unpacks estate boxes, reads a two-page letter in her father's block print, and pieces together hospital and cemetery records to answer what happened to the child called Celia and why the family kept her hidden for more than fifty years.
Person: Nancy Fitzgerald
Person: Wallace R. Hargrove
Date: March 3, 1967
Event: Cemetery plot purchase for $11.50
Document: Millhaven County General stillbirth record filed October 1967
- A county surveyor, Robert Patterson, found a headstone inscribed "Celia Ann Hargrove, 1968, Beloved" at Calverton Rest on May 14th.
- The burial plot deed was purchased on March 3, 1967, one year and eight months before the stone's date.
- A typed county document from October 1967 listed "unnamed female infant, stillbirth."
- Nancy Fitzgerald discovered a white envelope containing a black-and-white hospital photograph and two handwritten pages while sorting her parents' estate.
- Wallace bought the plot in cash for $11.50 after doctors informed him in February 1967 that the pregnancy was high-risk and the infant was unlikely to survive.
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