This stunning tombstone for Lida (Croom) Hodges, erected by her father, lies in the fenced Croom family plot in the Wharton City Cemetery. It's most eye-catching feature is its elegant carved of bust of Lida Croom Hodges atop the monument.
This tombstone is so artistic it is catalogued in the Smithsonian's SIRIS Database of outdoor sculpture: (
visit link)
"Lida Croom Hodges, (sculpture).
Artist: Unknown, sculptor.
Title: Lida Croom Hodges, (sculpture).
Dates: 1911.
Medium: Bust: white marble; Base: gray granite.
Dimensions: Overall: approx. H. 9 ft.; Base: approx. 6 1/2 x 4 x 4 ft.
Inscription: (On front bottom of bust, raised lettering:) LIDA (On front of base, raised lettering:) LIDA/DAUGHTER OF/W. J. & LIDA T. DENNIS/CROOM/BELOVED WIFE OF/J. FRANK HODGES/B. NOV. 26, 1874/ENTERED INTO LIFE ETERNAL/NOV. 25, 1911/AGE 37 YEARS LESS ONE DAY/CROOM" (On rear of base:) "ERECTED BY "MY PRECIOUS PAPA"/WHO WORSHIPED (sic) ME AS HE DID HIS GOD/OH LIDA WILL PAPA NEVERMORE BEHOLD THEE/SEE THY SWEET FACE AGAIN, NOT YOUR MERRY LAUGHTER/NO NOT HERE MY DAUGHTER, BUT SURELY I WILL IN HEAVEN."
Description: A bust likeness of Lida Croom Hodges. The bust is mounted on an inscribed, rectangular base topped by a cornice. The sculpture rests in a family plot surrounded by an iron fence and gate.
Subject: Portrait female -- Hodges, Lida Croom -- Bust
Object Type:
Outdoor Sculpture, Gravestone sculpture
Owner: Coadministered by City of Wharton, Wharton, Texas 77488, and Wharton Funeral Home, Wharton, Texas 77488
Located: City Cemetery, 300 North East Avenue, Wharton, Texas
Remarks: The sculpture remembers Lida Croom Hodges, who was born November 26, 1874 and died November 25, 1911. She is the granddaughter of A. C. Horton, (first Lieutenant Governor of Texas). She is buried next to her husband, who died October 29, 1910, in the Croom family plot. The iron fence and gate read: W. J. Croom 1890.
Note: The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
Repository: Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
Control Number: IAS TX000666"
The bust itself is sculpted from white marble and is a life-like portrait of Lida Croom Hodges. She is wearing a delicate drape around her bare shoulders. Her long hair is gathered into an elegant up-do hairstyle popular in the 1900s, with a neat bun at the back.
Heartwrenching epitaphs are inscribed on the back of the stone.
BUT - it's the front of the tombstone that piques deeper interest, and leads Blasterz to think there's some 19th century emotional tug-of-war going on here between Lida's father and her husband in the otherwise peaceful and tragic Croom family plot.
Lida Croom Hodges (d. 1911) is buried next to her husband, James Franklin "Frank" Hodges, who died in 1910. But - HIS tombstone claims that he was Lida's "beloved and idolized" husband, and the epitaph on the back of his tombstone is written in the form of a love letter from Lida to Frank dated Feb 20, 1894, where she says she will keep a tryst with him in Heaven. That's practically pornography for this time.
Then, when Lida died in 1911, her FATHER - not her husband's estate through his Woodmen of the World affiliation - erected her elegantly carved death mask tombstone. In contrast to her husband's epitaph, which is about their marriage bond, Lida's epitaph is all about her FATHER's grief. And just to underscore who built this for who: on the base of the tombstone it says in big letters "Erected by my precious Papa who worshiped me as he did his God."
There is one small nod to reality: Lida's marriage and husband's name is mentioned (in passing) on the front, but only after the names of her parents, AND on the base, her maiden name of CROOM is spelled out in very tall and prominent letters.
This is all sooo - Freudian!
James Franklin Hodges' tombstone is waymarked here: (
visit link)