Larry Griffin
lgriffin@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Under cloudy skies at the Bryson City Cemetery, a long-standing project came to fruition Saturday, May 20 as grave markers for George Masa and Laura Mack Kephart were unveiled next to writer Horace Kephart’s grave.
The project, called Project Reunite, was meant to fix wrongs done to Horace’s good friend and his wife after their own deaths. They both wanted to be buried next to his grave, but various circumstances made it so that did not happen.
Masa, without enough money after death, couldn’t be buried there. And Laura’s wish was to have her ashes laid there, but that never happened for unknown reasons – and her ashes ended up going missing more than 60 years ago.
Kephart’s great-granddaughter Libby Kephart Hargrave said Project Reunite had a lot of moving parts – they had to speak with various people involved with the cemetery, and they enlisted Asheville-based Martin Memorials to make the grave markers. They also raised money from individuals to get the project completed to its end.
On Saturday, as part of the weekend-long Kephart Days event, Hargrave led the ceremony, introducing several speakers who spoke of their reverence for Kephart, his writing and the history of the area.
Don Casada, president of Friends of the Bryson City Cemetery, said the placement of the markers was a positive for the future.
“You can’t see Mount Kephart because of the clouds today,” he said. “That’s the case maybe 40% of the time, but here’s some markers that will always be there to remember the man who the mountain is named for.”
Danny Bernstein, a writer who has been affiliated with the Carolina Mountain Club (CMC), praised Masa’s work as a hiker back in the early 1900s, including his own short-lived membership in the club.
“He liked hikes, he led the hiking community,” she said. “They’d say ‘just go with him, he’ll show you the great mountains.’ When he died in 1933, he was only a member of the Carolina Mountain Club for a few years.”
The CMC is a group formed in 1923 that works to promote hiking and related activities in the mountains in the area.
Photographer David Huff, chair of the George Masa Foundation and the Councilor for Communications for CMC, took pictures of the other speakers and then spoke himself about the impact Kephart had on him.
“Kephart came to find the ‘back of beyond,’” he said. “He was searching for himself in new ways. He rediscovered a new Horace Kephart. His friendship with George Masa was unique. They were both wounded men. They did not have a lot in common except for their love for the mountains. We can find solace in the connection with the land, with the people in the land.”
Huff also called attention to the fact that it’s the 100th anniversary of the CMC, the 100th anniversary of the Fryemont Inn, the 100th birthday of Kephart’s granddaughter Barbara Kephart Crane, and the 90th anniversary of George Masa’s death.
Hargrave spoke on Laura Kephart, saying Laura had been “very clear” on her wishes to be cremated, writing in a letter before her death in 1954 that she wanted “no casket or unnecessary expenses” and for her ashes to be placed with Kephart’s grave.
“It’s just a whim of mine,” Laura wrote to her daughters before her death, which Hargrave read at the ceremony.
The ceremony ended with all of the Kephart descendants gathering for a picture and lifting up a banner with Kephart’s image on it in tribute.
Following that, a reception was held at the Fryemont Inn at 1:30 p.m., featuring several speakers, including numerous Kephart descendants. They spoke about their memories of the family. Hargrave had kind words about Horace and Laura: “Kep, he got it right marrying Laura,” she said. “He got it really right.”
She said Laura had been an actress, a singer and had enjoyed sewing her own clothes, as exemplified by a wedding dress she’d made by hand.
“She was very creative,” Hargrave said. “After they got married, Horace said ‘there’s nothing comparable to my Laura.’”
The Kephart descendants spoke of the memories of their forebears, with several recounting old, intimate family stories.
“Horace and Laura, they did it right, they did the best they could,” Hargrave said.