April 15, 2010: Showman's Rest

Hugo, OK, has been a wintering spot for traveling circuses since the 1930s.
So to many of the circus folk, Hugo is as close to a "home" as they have.
As a result, many of these people end up buried there.

Although many circuses have rested in Hugo, its current winter denizens are Carson & Barnes Circus and its sister circus, Kelly Miller. When Kelly died in 1960, his brother D.R. Miller purchased a section in the town cemetery to memorialize him and other circus performers.
Marked by elephant topped monuments, the Showmen’s Rest section in Hugo’s Mount Olivet Cemetery holds tributes to “all showmen under God’s big top,” from animal trainers to jugglers to high wire artists. The life-size grave of Ringmaster John Strong wearing a top hat designates him as ”the man with more friends than Santa Claus” and Zefta Loyal still celebrates her title as the “Queen of Bareback Riders.”

It would be interesting to see, as would another section...

The Mount Olivet Cemetery also has the Bull Rider’s Reprieve section, with the graves of rodeo stars Freckles Brown, who was the first to ride the wild bull Tornado, and Lane Frost, a young champion bull rider who was gored during a performance.

link

Um... Is the hung elephant buried around there somewhere?

A little song
A little dance
A little seltzer
Down your pants.

Spuck, the hung elephant was buried in a grave near the tracks... How sad.

And that was Tennessee, this is Oklahoma.

Welcome to the Cellar, tessy292.:D

Durand, Michigan - Circus Train Wreck
There are also a few small gravemarkers of individuals with the words "Unknown." This cemetery is 1/2 mile east of my folks and where I grew up. Also, an elephant was killed in this crash, but because of its size, it was buried next to the train tracks at the site of the crash.

There's an elephant and a circus buried in Michigan

SPUCK;648933 wrote:

Um... Is the hung elephant buried around there somewhere?

It's a good thing we know what you mean by "Hung" elephant.
'Cuz that would just be sick, otherwise.


:D

I didn't know the hung elephant was named Spuck.

The life-size grave of Ringmaster John Strong

Life-size grave? Someone explain please. :eyebrow:

Shawnee123;648949 wrote:

A little song
A little dance
A little seltzer
Down your pants.

Death of Chuckles the Clown - MTM show. Possibly the best episode evah.

birdclaw;649040 wrote:

Life-size grave? Someone explain please. :eyebrow:

I tripped over that also. Aren't they all life-size? (Well, death-size anyway):cool:

I assumed it meant life-size gravestone, that the dude's got a full statue of himself on top of his grave.

I'd never heard of the Kelly Miller Circus until last week when the printing company where i work printed their show programs. We had to ship them to meet at the nearest small town they were going to be traveling through. It's amazing; a one -ring circus that still can still draw an audience in todays world.

Clodfobble;649106 wrote:

I assumed it meant life-size gravestone, that the dude's got a full statue of himself on top of his grave.

That's just kinky.

WillieO;649277 wrote:

It's amazing; a one -ring circus that still can still draw an audience in todays world.

Not everyone knows about the Cellar. ;)