Zora's Grave
Fort Pierce, Florida

ZORA NEALE HURSTON
GENIUS OF THE SOUTH
1901 - - - 1960
NOVELIST, FOLKLORIST,
ANTHROPOLOGIST

     the photos above were taken for this zora website by photographer/graphic artist Onajídé A. Shabaka, a former resident of ft. pierce, who is currently living in miami.
     In 1959, zora was lonely and impoverished when she suffered a stroke and entered the St. Lucie County Welfare Home. She died a few months later and was buried in a segregated cemetary, the Garden of Heavenly Rest. Alice Walker found her unmarked grave in 1973. Zora was actually born in 1891, so she lived to be 69 years old.
     two years ago, i went to visit zora's grave with my friends chandra and phoebe (not phoeby, but pronounced the same). it took us a long time to find it, because there are many more graveyards there than you would expect to find in such a small town. most of the people in the town are, apparently, dead.
     the first people we asked were the kind and helpful proprietors of "Ramon's Hot Fashions," whom i spoke to in broken spanish. they never heard of her, which began a trend for all of ft. pierce. her particular graveyard, as immortalized in alice walker's "In Search Of Zora Neale Hurston," was always "down this road, then you go right past the second graveyard, and turn right at the school, then left at the second dirt road..." and so on. people were very nice, and kept trying to help us, but most of them never heard of zora. we finally did find someone who was (he said "oh, that poet? y'all are lookin' for that poet, huh?"), but when we got to the grave it was getting kind of dark outside, so our pictures were pretty illegible. if we had gone on a weekday (presuming we were unemployed, of course), the ft. pierce tourist bureau would've been helpful. so i suggest going on a weekday.
     i plan to return to fort pierce someday, as well as to visit eatonville (perhaps the january Zora Neale Hurston Festival would be a good occasion).

kip