Grave Faces

The face of this cemetery might well be represented by Cora Clark. Cora was the daughter of the well-known Wilcox family of Carson City. Her father was a Civil War veteran and a Mayflower passenger descendant. Cora led the usual life of the times, marrying young and having a family. Her life changed when her husband had her committed to the State Hospital in 1917. The reason given to her family was that he could not get along with her. Cora would spend the next 25 years of her life at the State Hospital during some of the worst times of its history. Her family always corresponded with her and sent money for her clothing and other needs. They were never told to stop sending money for her care, but on a visit around 1940 they were told she had "vanished". A death certificate was obtained a few years later showing that she died at the hospital in 1943 and was buried at the hospital cemetery. Cora had family in Carson City and her father, mother and brothers are all buried at Lone Mountain Cemetery. This was where Cora was also to be buried. At the time of her death the law required that family be notified. If family could not be found, a death notice was to be published in a local paper. Neither of these things was done for Cora so her children were unable to bury her with her family according to their wishes. As was the custom at this hospital and others across the country, she was buried on hospital grounds in the manner fitting an indigent as defined by the State of Nevada. One would think that on the day of her death in 1943 her troubled life may have given way to a peaceful eternal rest. This was not the case.