Many of our politicians were veterans and Hollywood holds soldiers who served in various wars. Within two decades of its founding, Hollywood Cemetery began burying Mexican War and Spanish American War veterans along with a number of Civil War veterans. Twelve known Spanish American veterans are interred at Hollywood. At least a dozen former Confederate soldiers have their unit information inscribed on their markers, some of which are standard, military issued stones. No evidence of Union veterans was found. The cemetery reflects the region’s Civil War reality that, as a prime cotton-growing, slaveholding area, nearly all its white citizens aligned with secessionists.
Photo by Cristie Wright
Two notable markers, those for World War I veterans Jesse C. Lemmons (died 1927) [Section K1, Lot 34] and William A. Myers (died 1920) [Section D, Lot 19], express military motifs. Lemmons’s is a near life-size “doughboy” while Myers’s tablet stone contains an American flag carved in relief. Lemmon’s marker was almost totally destroyed by vandals in 2014 but was painstakingly restored by Joseph Lane, owner of Three Way Monuments.
Hollywood Cemetery includes a memorial to veterans who died during world wars, marking Hollywood as a commemorative site as well as a burial ground. A small stone desktop style stone on Main Avenue near the entrance notes that “The Anna Noel Chapter of American War Mothers placed this tree April 16, 1957 in memory of our loved ones that gave their lives in World Wars I, II, III. No mention was made of when WW III took place. The tree mentioned has since died.
Photo by Joe Exum
Hu Anderson (died 1953) [Section V, Lot 13] was one of two U. S. judges during the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. Judge Anderson’s statement in the Krupp Case is often quoted by legal scholars as outlining the standard for just treatment of defendants. Judge Anderson, who lived in Jackson when selected for the Nuremburg Trials and who returned to his judicial bench in Jackson after the Nuremburg trials ended, exemplifies a unique way Jackson and Hollywood Cemetery are related to the international community.
Photo by Cristie Wright