Society

James Davis Buries Late Wife on his Property, City Wants her Moved

By Michael Allen, Mon, August 20, 2012

James Davis buried his late wife, Patsy Ruth, outside his log home, which sits on his property in Stevenson, Alabama.

The burial site was Ruth's wish, but the city rejected Davis' application for a cemetery permit in 2009, when Ruth died.

However, Davis and his son-in-law dug the grave anyway. Ruth's body was placed inside a metal casket and lowered into a concrete vault.

Now, city officials want Ruth's remains moved because they are concerned about long-term care, appearance, property values and complaints, reports the Daily Mail.

The city sued Davis, and a county judge ordered the grieving husband to move Ruth's remains to a licensed cemetery. However, that court order is on hold until a state appeals court rules. Alabama has few property laws, so the case is in a gray area.

Davis told the Daily Mail: "Good Lord, they've raised pigs in their yard, there's horses out the road here in a corral in the city limits, they've got other gravesites here all over the place. And there shouldn't have been a problem."

Davis added that he would sooner die than move his late wife's remains: "So if they order her to be moved, it's a death sentence to me. I'll meet Mama sooner than I planned on it."

A judge ruled Davis had to remove his wife's remains but he is currently appealing the decision. The city said it fears the precedent the grave will set and said it is illegal

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Comments

Anyone who thinks, for two

DesElms - Aug 20 2012 - 1:41pm

Anyone who thinks, for two seconds, that there's anything okay about what Davis is doing is not thinking it all the way through. There are profound health, safety, sightliness, sacredness, property value, and just plain ol' creep-out-avoidance issues in play, here. Communities have cemeteries for a reason. This guy is just WAY out of line. I know that if were his neighbor, I'd be raising holy hell.

Regarding Davis having said, "Good Lord, they've raised pigs in their yard, there's horses out the road here in a corral in the city limits, they've got other gravesites here all over the place; and there shouldn't have been a problem," the guy's old enough to remember when all of that probably was true. However, there's such a thing as progress, and civilization and urbanization. The town is no longer the rural, unincorporated backwoods of his youth. There's no place for his approach to things inside the city limits anymore.

The city is completely in the right. Davis is completely in the wrong. Experienced cemetery workers need to move the grave to a cemetery and Davis needs to be sent the bill. If he doesn't pay it, then a lien needs to be placed on his property, and a court needs to order that he pays, and if he doesn't then whatever income he has needs to be garnished until its paid, at which point the lien needs to be removed.

Moreover, Davis should be fined pursuant to whatever law was operating the license for which he applied. Surely, it has some teeth in it for those who fail to follow it.

Regarding what Davis said, that he would sooner die than move his late wife's remains: "So if they order her to be moved, it's a death sentence to me. I'll meet Mama sooner than I planned on it," the city should respond, "Then so be it."

In the meantime, note to self: Avoid Alabama.

Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com

Veritas nihil veretur nisi abscondi.
Veritas nimium altercando amittitur.

Did you look into the current

Ashen_X - Aug 20 2012 - 5:36pm

Did you look into the current state of Stevenson Alabama before commenting in such a way as to indicate that Davis was merely an old man reminiscing about how life was in his youth ?

I ask because research and contemporary images support his description, not yours.

Unless there are laws preventing Davis' actions, you are mistaken about who is in the right here. A township may very well collect a licensing fee to operate a professional mortuary/cemetery without codifying restrictions on personal use of private property.

@Ashen_X: I did not look

DesElms - Aug 21 2012 - 9:28pm

@Ashen_X: I did not look into the current state of Stevenson, Alabama before I wrote any of what I wrote. But I did notice that the article referred to it as a "city," not a township or anything unincorporated.

People don't bury their dead in their yards in cities... not even in Alabama, I'll bet. Plus, everything you're suggesting flies in the face of the evidence that's right in the article. If it weren't offensive to the city, then why is the city doing what it's doing?

And there are OBVIOUSLY laws preventing Davis from doing what he did, else why'd he need a license?

You actually READ the article, right?

[sigh] Oy. [shakes head in disbelief]

Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com

Veritas nihil veretur nisi abscondi.
Veritas nimium altercando amittitur.

First I think it is important

Ashen_X - Aug 23 2012 - 3:35am

First I think it is important to this discussion to point out that, despite your claim to the contrary, There is not a single piece of, "evidence," present in the article. You did read the article right ?

No, actually, there are not OBVIOUSLY laws preventing him from doing as he did. The fact that a municipality possesses laws governing the operation of a commercial cemetery does not make it obvious that private internment on private property is illegal. Also consider that the article specifically states that there are NOT many property laws in Alabama. In fact the article specifically states that the matter is in a grey area of Alabama law and is currently under appeal (note that one generally has to show grounds for appeal in order for an appeal to progress so perhaps there is some merit to the gentleman's case ?)You did read the article right ?

At no point in the article is it stated that he NEEDED a license, merely that he attempted to obtain one. You did read the article right ?

I never claimed that it was not offensive to the city. Being offensive to a city does not make something illegal or wrong. Hmm, for that matter your home town (assuming that you still dwell in Napa) once found Chinese people to be offensive and took action against them (actually was instrumental in pushing the Chinese Exclusion Act for the entire state).

Then again there is nothing in the article to indicate that the matter is offensive to the city, merely to individuals with some degree of power within the city. Remember a mayor, police chief, or city attorney are not "the city," merely its employees, and are just as subject to misuse of power or mistakes of judgement as any employee of any employer.

For what its worth home burial is legal in every state in the U.S. (including California)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/us/21funeral.html?_r=2&hpw

@Ashen_X: Not long after you

DesElms - Aug 25 2012 - 1:57pm

@Ashen_X: Not long after you posted your immediately above (to which I'm now reponding), my impulse was to fire back and dismantle your posting in my normal way. I'm not going to get into (yet) what made me pause (I'll cover that in a subsequent post), but pause I did. And during that pause, I re-read the article, then my words, then yours, then mine, then yours...

...and one thing about which you were right is that I had not done appropriate due diligence (though that's not the way you worded it); and I had not, as the lawyers say, become fully advised in the premises. You had me, there. I was basing my words on what was in this article, and nothing more. That's unlike me, believe it or not. I'm not proud that I did that.

So, before continuing, I wanted to bygod do my homework. My motivation, though, frankly, was that I know, from experience, that nothing trumps a debate opponent like hard facts and truth; and I was gonna' bygod get all that, in spades, and shove it up your you-know-what 'til you choked. A reply to @Ashen_X, I thought to myself, could wait 'til I was fully armed.

And so on August 23rd, instead of replying to you, I picked-up the phone and embarked on that knowledge journey. I continued it yesterday, August 24th; and I just got off the phone from another few hours of it again today, Sat, August 25th... and I'm still nowhere near done.

But something profoundly moving has happened in the process which it pains me to admit that I can already see is almost certainly going to make me at least modify many of my earlier words in this thread; and flat-out take back some others of them. There's far more to this story than anyone (at least anyone here; and from my reading of over fifty articles about it, now, most anyone of those who wrote them) knows.

I'm ashamed to say that I jumped to some conclusions to which I now realize I should not have jumped. I'm not saying you're completely right, 'cause you're not; but it's starting to turn out, I think, that I was way more wrong about a lot of what I wrote than were you about what you wrote. I hate being in the position of having to admit that, but even my ex-wife used to tell me that one of the things she liked about me (and it turns out there were darned few) was my willingness to wear my wrongs. And it would appear that I was a whole bunch wrong about no small amount of what I wrote. Er... well... let me say that another way: Given the specific context of this situation, some of what I wrote which I still believe is at least categorically right about such situtations as this in most places, is likely not right about this one, in this place. In all things, context. Shame on me for forgetting that.

I'm not going to go into detail, here, now, what's going on; but trust me when I tell you that I'll be coming back here to explain it all sometime likely this coming week, and it's likely gonna' make you pretty happy. It'll get a smile outta' ya' -- some of it an "I told you so" smile -- at the very least. But what will surprise and move you will not be so much that, but what new and interesting information I've gleaned from my research, and what's now going to happen because of it.

It will likely result in an article, which tells this story as no one has yet told it (I'm an old newspaper writer, and have been ublished many times over the years, so I know how to write and article of the type I'm not envisioning, and who to shop it to); and I don't want to even reveal, yet, what else good from it is almost certainly, now, going to result. You won't believe, when all's said and done, what it is. You'll be, I hope, pleasantly surprised. I know that I am.

In the meantime, I candidly admit that I'm not much enjoying some of the egg I now have on my face, but there it is, like it or not. I'm gonna' see, though, if I can turn it into something of an omelet.

I'd apologize to you a little, except that based on what I knew (or at least THOUGHT I knew) I was right. The problem is that what I thought I knew was nowhere near the whole story; and what I've since learned is compelling, indeed.

As nice as it's been sparring with you, I'm going to end-up, I think, conceding to you what can only be fairly characterized as at least a partial victory in this debate to you... and maybe even more than that.

Man, I HATE it when that happens! [grin]

More to come. Be patient. Stay tuned.

And try not to gloat. [grin]

Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com

Veritas nihil veretur nisi abscondi.
Veritas nimium altercando amittitur.

Does your slave collar chaff

RealityBites - Aug 20 2012 - 2:01pm

Does your slave collar chaff much? Do you even understand what America is or stands for? From your post it appears you haven't even the faintest idea.

Those that can't or won't defend themselves can only be slaves.

AMERICA FUCK YEAH!! America

State of Reason - Aug 21 2012 - 2:47pm

AMERICA FUCK YEAH!! America stands for a chicken in every pot and a corpse in every yard! Why shouldn't everybody be allowed to bury people in their yard? Right? Forget about the property rights of your neighbors whose property value goes down if they live next to an unlicensed cemetery! Other people don't matter.

Forget about health codes designed to keep us all safe from disease. If this guy says he buried her in a safe and sanitary way then that's good enough for me. People never lie after all and they always research the health implications of what they do. Whose business is it if he buried her un-embalmed body too shallow and it spreads disease to the other people in the community? Property rights! Freedom! You'll get her cold dead hands when you pry them from his cold dead hands!