By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–The final resting places of former Paris Mayor Frank McNeill and his daughter Frankaline are finally marked and were officially dedicated at a solemn ceremony Saturday at the historic Paris City Cemetery.
Organized by the Henry County Cemetery Committee, the ceremony included a talk on the life of McNeill by Ray Harding and the life of Frankaline by Henry County Clerk & Master Mary Burns. County Archivist Stephanie Tayloe served as emcee, with fellow Cemetery Committee member Susan Stewart updated everyone on the progress being made restoring the old headstones in the cemetery.
In attendance at the ceremony were former Paris Mayors John Van Dyck, Andy Hooper and David Travis.
Mayor McNeill, considered one of Paris’ most colorful mayors, was involved in a scandal which drew international attention in the 1930s after he eloped to marry a 16-year-old. McNeill met Myrtle Pauline “Polly” Clark while he was staying at a boarding house operated by Polly’s aunt.
Harding said McNeill was elated when Polly accepted his proposal and made plans for a big wedding in a big tent with a big crowd. His family was horrified at the idea and he compromised with a small wedding officiated by an “Indian preacher” who had been conducting a revival in a neighboring county.
The wedding gained international attention and was the subject of newspaper articles in New York, Chicago and in Europe. The city of Paris, France, even invited the Mayor and his young wife to their fair city to celebrate their love in the “City of Love”.
When McNeill died in 1934, his family did not give him a marker in the family plot at the City Cemetery, nor did they provide a marker for the daughter of McNeill and his wife. Their daughter was named Frankaline which Harding said was a combination of both parents’ names–Frank and Pauline.
Burns explained that Frankaline was mentally challenged and could not live on her own, so the County’s Clerk & Master office served as her guardian. Burns visited her regularly and always took her a birthday cake after she found out how much Frankaline liked birthday celebrations. “So we had a birthday party every time we visited and she loved that. Frankaline was a lovely, lovely, gentle soul.”
The only “true request” she made of Burns was that she wanted to be buried with her father, she said.
Due to the scandal, McNeill’s family would not place markers at his grave (although they did allow him to be buried in the McNeill family plot). Over the years, foot stones were placed at the graves of McNeill and Frankaline, but until now, Mayor Frank and his daughter Frankaline never had proper markers.
Stewart said she and other Cemetery Committee volunteers have repaired and restored some 53 monuments in the cemetery and are always looking for more volunteers and donations to help with the effort.
There are a total 13 former Paris Mayors buried in the cemetery, along with Paris’ early pioneers and leaders.
Tayloe said, “We’ve worked hard to restore the cemetery so that no one buried here is forgotten.”
Photo: Ray Harding speaks to the crowd at Saturday’s dedication. Shannon McFarlin photo.
