JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.COM
SHOULD JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY BE BROUGHT HOME?
When James Whitcomb Riley died in 1916, there was great
confusion over where he should be buried. Death had closed his lips about
his own provision for his burial in Greenfield's Park Cemetery in a lot he
purchase for that purpose near his mother and father. Riley was unmarried.
No one seemed to know what he wished done. Due to his then fame, the City of
Indianapolis and prominent citizens there arranged for his burial in Crown Park
Cemetery.
Recently the fame of this great writer has dimmed. His humanism and
glorification of things Hoosier are not so valued now as in former days.
So is it time to allow him to rest in peace where he intended, in his hometown
of Greenfield, Indiana?
Email us your views at TEQW@aol.com
Should America's "Children's Poet" be allowed to have his remains returned to the empty grave he purchased to house his remains?
On the pages below (starting at the bottom of the records of the City of Greenfield, page 367 and top of page 368) is the record of James Whitcomb Riley's purchase of his gravesite.
