Ernest J. Gaines will be interred Saturday among the graves of his ancestors on the former sugar cane plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish where he was born.
Gaines, the internationally acclaimed author of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and A Lesson Before Dying, died Nov. 5. The former writer-in-residence at the 91勛圖 was 86.
La Louisiane, the Universitys magazine, after he won the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Award. He said in the interview he was fixated on saving the cemetery that will now be his final resting place.
The greatest obsession in my life right now is that I can own and preserve the cemetery where my people are buried for the past 100 years. Many of the graves he estimated there were no less than 200 people buried there were without marks, or tombstones.
Kathleen Thames, the articles author, wrote: There was a time when Gaines wanted his own epitaph to state, He was a good man who wrote well.
I think Ive changed that to, To lie with those who have no marks, Gaines told her.
In a statement following Gaines death, University President Dr. Joseph Savoie cited the authors initial wishes for his epitaph, but suggested he was more than a good man who wrote well.
Gaines was also an extraordinary and inspiring figure in the American literary landscape, Savoie said. He was a believer in the power of words to inspire unflinching, honest conversations about painful corners of our collective past.
The University remembered Gaines during a public memorial service Monday in Edith Garland Dupr矇 Library, the home of the . The center holds many of his first-edition works and original manuscripts.
After Gaines died, the center eulogized its namesake as a towering man with a gentle voice and an inspiration.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Hall Davis and Sons, 9348 Scenic Highway in Baton Rouge. Gaines family will receive visitors at the funeral home from 4-6 p.m. Friday and from noon to 1 p.m. on the day of the services.
Following the 1994 La Louisiane profile, Gaines purchased the cemetery where his ancestors are interred. He bought and moved Mount Zion Baptist Church to the property as well.
Hell be buried there Saturday among those who have no marks.
Photo credit: The Ernest J. Gaines Center / 91勛圖