As seen on NBC 12 News, September 23, 2004:The mystery of the broken tombstone that showed up on a Henrico County woman's front yard is now solved. It has been traced it back to a cemetery on Richmond 's Southside. Her name was Nanny Skinner Simms and she was just 34 when she died on Christmas Day 1918.
Initially, Joyce Fry said she was "creeped out" by the tombstone lying on her front yard. Now, she's relieved that the stone will soon be reunited with it's rightful owner. "If it were my relatives, I'd want to have it back," says Fry.
Genealogist Kevin Lett saw the story about the tombstone that washed up with all the other debris from Gaston. He didn't have much to go on -- just the day and the year of death, and the inscription, "Kinner Simms." Library of Virginia records reveal a Nanny Skinner Simms died in Richmond on December 25th, 1918.
"There was only one person who died on the 25th in 1918, after that it was easy," says Lett.
Records show that Nanny Simms lived on Decatur Street, in a home that no longer exists. She died of pneumonia at Virginia hospital, now known as VCU Medical Center. But, when we found her grave at Maury Cemetery -- it already had a marker. It turns out the stone in Fry's front yard -- is the original that got replaced. Fry says she's still willing to return it, "I need her to get it back where it belongs."
So how did the broken stone show up in Lakeside? The cemetery manager says the stone was probably discarded and ended up with other rubble. Fast forward to two weeks ago after the floods tear up Fry's street, county workers bring in rocks and boulders to fix a sinkhole in her street."
Minnie Roh"
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