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Council passed a bylaw designating the tower as a structure of arehiteo. tural or historical value under the Heritage Act. This means the town is eligible to collect $12,000.in grants to help pay for the $40,000 in repairs being done to the tower. ST. MARYS (Bureau) - The stone water tower on Queen Street, a land- mark here for more" than 80 years, should continue to be one for years to come following a town council deer. sion Tuesday. By HUGH A, MULLIGAN No crosses, no sculptured an- . McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - gels, no uncouth rhymes im. Years before the computer plore the passing tribute of a threatened to reduce all human- sigh. Not even a "Beloved Fa- ity to a statistic, men lived and ther of ' ' ' /' a' "Lovin Wise of. . T g died by the numbers: ' .” or a "Rest in Peace." flelan, All JJ, know (£393: is this he - _ was rn on as mas ay, $02112: too: - 1900, and died at age 58 on Oct. 70376 iiki . . 29, 1959. Somewhere along the l 16 1938 way, melancholy marked him _ . . for her own. If he wasn'taliter t 7-4-1961 . ' '. Stark in their entirety, blunt it turned out that way. t as the presiding judge's gavel, Off to the Side near the un- these are epitaphs on the white- locked gate, segregated by race I washed headstones in the prison and sex, 79376 B-F, a black te- . cemetery across the highway yaltwtodiyia.tag.e 23, rests m a from the maximum-security the shade of a giant cottonwood l wing of the Oklahoma tree, Free atlast. What was her penitentiary. By the hundreds, crime? How long could she have the convict dead lie. in orderly served to die so young? rows, each in his last narrow There is no question of the ' ',iillf,gi1g,'elaid, serving the fi- fate of: F na sentence, w _ I St. Marys designa tes three h 'ist I / it Only numbers on graves In prison cemetery /erp7, Storey said he doesn't know what repairs the bridge retluires but that project may be eligible for grants un- der the Heritage Act as well as fund.. ing by the transport ministry.' Town clerk. Ken' Storey said the mill race needs repairs to its stone- work, estimated to cost $15,000 to $20,000. Council similarly designated Vic- toria Street bridge, which spans the Thames River at the western edge of town, and the mill race, a stone chute that once supplied water to turn the wheel at the Great Star Flour Mill. Off to the side near the un- locked gate, segregated by race and sex, 70376 B-F, a black ie.. male who died at age 23, rests in the shade of a giant cottonwood tree. Free at last. What was her crime? How long could she have served to die so young? All we know of 60939 is that he was born on Christmas Day, 1900, and died at age 58 on Oct, 29, 1959. Somewhere along the way, melancholy marked him for her own. It he wasn't a liter, it turned out that way, No crosses, no sculptured an- gels, no uncouth rhymes im- plore the passing tribute of a sigh. Not even a "Beloved. Fa- ther of . . . ,” a "Loving Wise of . . ." or a "Rest in Peace." Pretty-B/oy Floyd, V Maéhine- Gun Kelly, Baby-Face Nelson or Bonnie and Clyde, whq operated in these paris but died elsewhere. Just ordinary phonebook names. Not all the numbers are nameless in death. James Whithope, Leroy Ellis, John Barber, Andrew Suggs and a few others have names as well as numbers on their headstones, a custom that seems to have begun around 1939, judging from the dates. Nothing fancy or jolting like 18354 EXty . White male, executed. The crude printed figures don't tell us when or why, With that low number was he hanged? 0r had the electric chair come to Okla: home, by then? Time and the wind that never seems to cease blowing across these plains have obliterated the numbers on most of the other stones in "Death Row," which seems a strange designation for that part pt the graveyard reserved for prisoners dispatched by the state instead of their Maker. One tombstone has its head lop- ped off so that only the letters "EXC' appear on the portion of stone remaining. From yonder machine-gun- mounted tower, sirens wail the prisoners' passing hours-get up, wash up, line up, chow up, work details, bed check-with- out disturbing the sleep of W 14021 or B 19722. W 20391 rates yellow plastic flowers on his grave, the only evidence of grief save for the keening of the locusts in the tall grass. 0n visitors' day at the penitentiary, a handful of rela- tives may cross the road and open the gate, but perhaps months and years and decades go by without anyone pausing to remember W 11252 or B 7563. The Beacon Herald / Wednesday August 2 / 1978 ar To the kids pausing on the way back from the fishing hole, he'll be just another nameless number among the unvisited dead, In death, nobody wanted him. No one came to. claim the body. While they get around to carv- ing his stone, the undertaker's coffin marker will wrinkle and vanish in the late summer rains and only a black scrawled num- ber will identify him. With Claude Eugene Dennis, Lancaster broke out of the McAlester penitentiary on April 23, escaping through a sewer. The two shot their way across a half-dozen states in the Deep South, killing eight people. On May 26, they met their end in a shoot-out with police in the little town of Caddo, Okla., and were reported to have been riddled with more bullet holes than the legendary Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Lancaster is the latest arrival and, at the moment, the best, known occupant. For M days, Michael Lancas- ter was the most-wanted man in ' America. A mound of straw-colored earth over a freshly dug grave catches their eye, No white- washed headstone yet. But a metal marker with a cardbcard name tag has been implanted in the dirt: "Michael La caster, 1952-1978, Chaney Funeral Home." And, for sure, there are some proven innocents here, like: ' Baby of 44119 3-742 and: Baby of Emilie Hind _ 50270 V died ' 9-29-49 In the rising heat and dust of another summer afternoon,. four boys on bicycles with fishing poles across the han- dlebars pause in the shade of a sign: "Warning. Hitch-hikers may be escaping convicts." Co