Across the bay, more lost remains?

Unmarked graves may still occupy a former Clearwater cemetery.

CLEARWATER — A large tree stood in the middle of the empty field next to Essie Rayner-Jones’ childhood home in the African American neighborhood of Clearwater Heights. And, once a week, she said, Sonny Buchanan sat under it to pay respect to his mother. “She was buried nearby,” said Rayner-Jones, 74. But it was the 1960s. And the 1-acre African American cemetery, on land near the corner of Madison Avenue and Gould Street, had been moved during the prior decade. “They took the graves with headstones,” said Rayner-Jones, who grew up on Gould Street.

“They left the unmarked ones, and there were plenty. Go thumping around, you’ll find skeletons.” Others who grew up in that since-razed neighborhood also say they were told as children that the field remained a burial ground after the headstones disappeared. They are now seeking confirmation that there are active graves there, or whether it was a neighborhood ghost story. “Let’s find archaeologists who will help,” said 64-year-old Muhammad Abdur-Rahim, who grew up in Clearwater Heights. “I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t.” A group of former Clearwater Heights residents has reached out to the property’s current owner, Frank Crum, Jr. But he does not support their investigation. The former cemetery land is now part of a 2-acre vacant lot on his FrankCrum Staffing’s Clearwater campus at 100 S. Missouri Ave. “We have every reason to believe that the funeral directors who moved the cemetery back in the 1950s did a thoughtful and thorough job,” Crum wrote in an email to the Tampa Bay Times.

FULL STORY

Reporter: By Paul Guzzo -- Times Staff Writer

Word Count: 1029

Publication: Tampa Bay Times

Section: A DESK