Aiken, SC – Day 27: Allman Brothers Not Live At The Rose Hill Cemetery

 
Today was a short day, but I wasn’t in a hurry, as the lunch I wanted to do with my Edward Jones crew was moved to Friday. I stayed up until 11:00 PM and slept for only about 3-1/2 hours. I tossed and turned but couldn’t get back to sleep. I turned the temp down to 67 in the room and put earbuds in to listen to an Everyday Driver podcast. Somewhere in that hour I nodded off but woke up when the podcast ended. I got up, went to the bathroom, turned off the alarm, and got back into bed. I woke up at 7:30AM. Somehow I ended up with a good night’s sleep out of it.

My route took me right through the city of Macon, and I remember one time way back when I thought I should stop in and visit the graves of 4 of the 6 founding members of the Allman Brothers Band. I never had the time until today. Using the info from Roadside America, I knew sort of where the graves were located in the cemetery, but it took 2 passes and then a third, after returning to the entry of the Rose Hill Cemetery, where there were explicit directions posted to the grave sites. There is a fence around 4 graves because people were doing things to and sometimes on the graves.

Another grave with an Allman Brothers connection is that of Martha Ellis, who died in 1886 at 12 years old. It is believed to have inspired the band’s song ‘Little Martha.’ While looking for the band members’ grave sites, I happened to just stumble on her grave site. I picked out the statue easily enough while wandering around because I had seen the picture on Roadside America. Plus it was right along the road, unlike the band members’ site, which is in a small hollow in this very hilly cemetery.