Bonaventure Cemetery

SAVANNAH’S MOST BELOVED LITTLE GIRL Little Gracie Watson was loved by Savannah’s elite for her role as entertainer and hostess during her mother’s extravagant Pulaski Hotel parties. She drew many a smile, not only with guests, but with the many street vendors outside the hotel on Johnson Square. It was said that she ‘adopts every passerby and every passerby adopts her.’ When she died suddenly at age six in 1889 due to nephritis, not only her parents, but the city was devasted. Thousands in Savannah attended her funeral over an entire week. Her lifesized statue, carved by the famous sculptor John Walz from a photograph of the dead child, and unveiled in 1894, is the most visited gravesite in the cemetery. Walz said this was his greatest work ever. Stare deep into her eyes. She almost comes alive. (Section E, Lot 99 / F-17 on map)