Menu
Cemetery tour brings notables back to life
McCOOK, Neb. — The spirits spoke during the “Cemetery Tour” Sunday afternoon of McCook’s annual Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival weekend.
“Blind Sam,” McCook’s well-known downtown minstrel, sang “You Are My Sunshine” to a group gathered at his gravestone in Riverview Cemetery. “I played the violin as well, but most folks complained it was a bit screechy,” Blind Sam (portrayed by Gabe Sehnert) said.
Isaac Samuel O’Connor was born McCook in 1880, and was completely blind by the time he was 12 years old. To make his way in the world, he played the fiddle and sang for change on street corners in downtown McCook. “Sam” said he recognized passersby by their footsteps, and could easily tell the difference between a coin and a slug.
Sam said his “mail-order Annie” was disillusioned with life as the wife of a blind sidewalk musician, divorced him and left McCook.
Anita Mockry portrayed Mary Fitzgerald Brady, the niece of Pat Walsh who founded McCook National Bank in 1907. It was through diligent bank service that Mary became a board member in 1917 and eventually majority owner.
Mary and her husband, postmaster Ed Brady, were both very civic-minded and helped raise money to build St. Catherine’s of Sienna Hospital. Much of the Bradys’ estate funds scholarships at McCook Community College and projects at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and School.
Other popular McCook figures portrayed during the Cemetery Tour were:
MEMORIAL PARK CEMETERY: A.A. Barnett, John McCarl, Louis Suess, Sen. George W. Norris, H.P. and Eliza Sutton, Colvin Alstot and Cora French Evans.
RIVERVIEW CEMETERY: John, Pauline and Anna Roth, Matthew and Mary Stewart and Leslie Dowling.
CALVARY CEMETERY: Henry and Kate Corcoran and Jesus and Francisca Monzon.