Lucia Cushman paused in deep thought as she leaned against a dark gray headstone at the west end of the University Cemetery. As the sun began to set on the unusually warm January day, Lucia was reminiscing about the people she danced with at a fraternity party that occurred more than 60 years ago.
"I love coming here to the graveyard," Lucia suddenly said, "it's where I go to visit all my old friends."
For the rare student who ventures into the sleepy cemetery, which is tucked between McCormick Road Dorms and Alderman Road, the names on the headstones do little more than conjure up images of neo-classical academic buildings and dormitories. But for Lucia, many of the people buried in the graveyard were dear friends that passed through her life during the course of the long years she has spent living in and around the University.
Lucia began pushing back an overgrown bush with her cane as she searched for the headstone of her friend Natalie Venable Minor.
"Natalie was my first chaperone when I came to the University in 1937," said Lucia, who originally is from Tenessee. "My grandfather didn't want me to come to this 'wild place' as he called it. But his law partner, Dent Minor, told him that I could go live with his first cousin, Natalie, because he said one hasn't really lived until one goes to Virginia."
She paused.
"And you know, I think he was right."
"Natalie was very proud of living at the University as well as her father's service in the Confederate Army," Lucia said as she recalled the words on Natalie's gravestone which reads, "Born at the University of Virginia. Lived her life at the University of Virginia. Died at the University of Virgina. Her father was aid to General Robert E. Lee."
After a brief pause Lucia moved off toward an old white rectangular grave marker covered in lichen and ivy. While the grave showed its age of 50 years, it is far from the cemetery's oldest. The first person interned at the University Cemetery was a student named Henry Tucker who died Jan. 28, 1828.
The grave Lucia was looking at was small and bore an engraving of the tree of life on its front; a small Seven Society symbol was on one side. No name was on it.
"This is Harry Taylor and he was just drop dead attractive," she said as she peered down at the gravestone.
Lucia's friend, Henry 'Harry' Noble Taylor, was an avid baseball fan and editor-in-chief of The Cavalier Daily. Lucia met him at a cocktail party held at Farmington before he graduated in 1951. Taylor, a Pi Lambda Phi fraternity member, became a foreign news correspondent when he graduated. He died when he was shot to death while on assignment in the Congo.
"He had Robert Redford looks and was an all American boy. He was loved by everyone," Lucia said.
Walking further, Lucia recalled that Judge Armistead Dobie was buried somewhere among the cemetery's 1,428 plots. Lucia's husband Walter Cushman had Dobie as a professor when he attended the Law School in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
"The Judge would always try to embarrass [Walter] when he took me with him to class," she said.
Lucia remembered Dobie as a great poker player and friend.
"In the old days you saw more of your professors than you do today, it's a shame these days," she added.
"Over here is John Staige Davis," she suddenly said, moving off to another section of the 174 year old graveyard.
Lucia recalled playing blackjack with Davis' wife while John went off to war in the early 1940s. Davis worked in the University Hospital and headed up the Eighth Evacuation Core, which served in Morocco and Italy during World War II. Lucia remembered sending canned foods and writing letters to the family friend.
"He was charming and he loved the University. He even made a speech to celebrate Jefferson's birthday while he was overseas," she added.
Lucia's slow deliberate stroll took her into the Confederate soldier section of the cemetery as she made her way toward two small headstones which lay about 20 yards outside the gates of the graveyard.
The Confederate cemetery is the final resting place of 445 soldiers who died at hospitals set up at the University by the Confederacy to care for Southern troops wounded during the war.
Walking out the gates Lucia commented on the beauty of the old magnolia and evergreen trees.
"I used to come here with a brush to scrape off the lichen growing on some of my friend's graves. I always thought I was going to get arrested for doing that," she said.
Lucia made her final stop in front of the graves of two of the University's most beloved personalities, Beta and Seal. Both were mascots and dearly loved friends of the University during their days here. Beta passed on April 6, 1939, while Seal left the University for good Dec. 11, 1953.
Both dogs had free roam of the University and the surrounding community.
"I remember that no dogs were allowed in Corner restaurants except Beta and Seal. Students loved seeing them in classrooms, at fraternity parties and on the sidelines of athletic events," Lucia recalled.
"Seal's claim to fame was the time he went over to the opposing team's cheerleading section at a football game and lifted his leg on one of their megaphones," Lucia said.
"If Beta showed up at a fraternity party and left, everyone would leave with him because Beta knew when a party wasn't good anymore," she said.
When Beta died, students lined the streets from the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house to the cemetery to watch the funeral precession. At the funeral itself, 1,000 students listened as the Dean of Students read a solemn eulogy for the beloved hound.
As Lucia prepared to leave the cemetery that housed so many of her former friends, she fondly remembered all the parties, all the drinking and dancing, and all the happy times she had with those who now lie in the small cemetery at the corner of Alderman and McCormick Road.
"There's so many stories in that cemetery, so many interesting people, I hope all these stories aren't forgotten one day," Lucia said softly.
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