We drove toward Macon and called Aunt Donna
(actually a cousin, but she tolerates us calling her Aunt) and she said to come
on over for a visit. A lady named Becky Grady was visiting but excused herself
to meet someone else for dinner. Aunt
Donna said Becky had written a book about black soldiers in the Civil War who
are buried in Macon.
 | She took us out to the cemetery to see their headstones. We also saw a marker for some Confederate sympathizers who were executed in Macon. Across the way from the cemetery, on another hill, Donna pointed out the old Blees Academy, a military academy started by Colonel Blees in the nineteenth century and now used by HUD for low-income housing, and by the Macon County Historical Society. |  |
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She mentioned it had been a mental hospital for a time after the Academy closed. Grandpa Stasey, Thomas Anderson Stasey, was employed there in the fifties. We went back to Hannibal and had dinner.
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| The Next Day |  |