The graves of Emil & Kelly Mitchell, "King and Queen of the Gypsies", are highly decorated with trinkets and offerings to this day. Today the term "Romany" is preferred to the more negatively-connotated "Gypsy", but we are using the older word only because it is etched into the adjacent tombstones of King Emil and Queen Kelly.
From Find-A-Grave, some more information on Emil Mitchell and his wife Kelly Mitchell, as follows:
KELLY MITCHELL: (
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"Birth: 1868
Alabama, USA
Death: Jan. 31, 1915
Coatopa
Sumter County
Alabama, USA
Queen of the Gypsies. Died at age 47 from compications due to childbirth. The doctor was offered $10,000 to save her life, but was unable to. She was brought to a funeral director in Meridian, Mississippi and the decision was made to bury her here. This led to a section of the cemetery becoming known as the "Gypsy Burial Ground". Members of many Gypsy tribes came from all over the United States, and some accounts say there were 20,000 there to view the body. More than 5,000 followed the body to the cemetery to witness last rites. She was said to have been buried with many jewels and personal valuables, and her grave was heavily concreted to discourage vandals. Today, visitors leave beaded necklaces and alcohol bottles in rememberance.
Family links:
Spouse: Emil Mitchell (1857 - 1942)
Burial:
Rose Hill Cemetery
Meridian
Lauderdale County
Mississippi, USA"
EMIL MITCHELL: (
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"Birth: 1857
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Death: Oct. 16, 1942
Albertville
Marshall County
Alabama, USA
King of the Gypsies. Died at age 85 years. He supposedly came to America in 1862. In 1884 he obtained his United States citizenship and also became King of the Gypsies in a large ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio. He and his nephew, Slatcho, who died the day after Emil, were buried together in an elaborate funeral. It resembled an ancient burial ritual and included adding many of the deceased's valuable belongings in their graves. For this reason, the graves were heavily concreted over to discourage graverobbers.
Family links:
Spouse: Kelly Mitchell (1868 - 1915)"
More from the RomanyJib website, which includes newspaper articles" (
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"Mitchell Family USA
1915 Meridian MS Despatch
Wife of Emil Mitchell maiden name Marks
The sudden death of Callie Mitchell brought 20,000 gypsies to the town of Meridian to attend her Funeral & burial. The tribe were camped near Meridian when the Queen died during the delivery of a child
The funeral services took place Feb. 12, 1917, and were held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, with rector,
The Rev. H. W. Wells officiating. Burial at Rose Hill Cemetery
“At one side of the parlors, with candelabra at the head and foot stands the magnificent silver-trimmed metallic casket. Hermetically sealed within, in all the barbaric splendor of a medieval Queen lays Mrs. Callie (Kelly) Mitchell Queen of the Gypsies of America.
Her swarthy face with its high cheekbones is typical of Romany tribes and the head, the upper portion of which is covered with bright silken drapery pinned at the back with pins, rests upon a cushion of filmy silk and satin. The hair is braided Gypsy fashion and the dark tresses shine.
The body is attired in a Royal robe of Gypsy Green and other bright colors contrasting vividly with the somber hues usual under such circumstances. Two necklaces are around the neck, one of shells, an heirloom that was descended through generations.
The lower part of the body is draped with “Sacred Linen” treasured by Gypsy bands for the use only when death overtakes one of their numbers. When the children arrive, each will put a memento of some kind in the casket and it will devolve upon the youngest child to place her mother’s earrings in the ear.”
Her tribe believed the Queen’s journey into after life would require certain items of comfort, such as comb, brush, and other toilet accessories, as well as a supply of clothing for use on the other side of the Styx.
Some even thought she was buried with valuable jewels, and perhaps she was?
Members of the Mitchell Tribe, at the time one of the largest in the country, came to Meridian from all parts of the United States to pay tribute: a newsreel was made and exhibited throughout the country relating the mystery and homage paid to a woman of high esteem as she made her final journey to be laid to rest.
The death of her husband, King Emil, and other family members, Queen Flora Mitchell, Mike Wilson Mitchell, leader of the Mississippi Tribe and Mehil Mitchell, eight-year-old nephew of King Emil, who died of influenza in Jackson, Mississippi on Nov. 12 1918, are all buried at Rose Hill Cemetery."
A photo of King Emil Mitchell is in the files of the Library of Congress: (
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From the Alabama.com website: (
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"A golden casket and a legendary party: The burial of an Alabama gypsy queen
By Kelly Kazek
Published on December 23, 2014 at 11:55 AM
In January of 1915, a Romany gypsy clan camping in Alabama was in a state of panic. Their queen, Kelly Mitchell, was dying.
She was in childbirth without aid of a doctor, as was custom, but it would be her 15th birth and her health was failing. In an unprecedented move, her husband, King Emil Mitchell, sent for the town physician, Dr. Forrest Lee Hester, and offered him $10,000 if he could save the queen's life.
It was to no avail.
Kelly, sometimes written "Callie," Mitchell, age 47, died on Jan. 31, 1915, in the Sumter County town of Coatopa.
Her funeral, held 12 days later to allow gypsies to travel to the event, was an extravagant festival that would be described in newspapers across the country and lead to tales of a golden, or perhaps silver, casket and gold coins that would result in several grave-robbing attempts.
King Emil would remarry and live another 27 years, dying in Albertville, Ala., in 1942.
Queen Kelly's funeral and formation of a gypsy cemetery
The gypsy camp in Coatopa was located near the Mississippi line and King Emil chose to bury his beloved wife in the town of Meridian.
A history of the Mitchell family on gypsyjib.com says her body was taken to Horace C. Smith Undertaking Co., now known as Webb Funeral Home, "because it was the closest place with proper funeral facilities, including refrigeration."
According to a Feb. 7, 1915, article in The Meridian Dispatch, more than 20,000 gypsies crowded into the town to witness the service held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church with the Rev. H. W. Wells officiating. Most had to stand outside.
The newspaper described the funeral:
"At one side of the parlors, with candelabra at the head and foot stands the magnificent silver-trimmed metallic casket. Hermetically sealed within, in all the barbaric splendor of a medieval Queen lays Mrs. Callie (Kelly) Mitchell Queen of the Gypsies of America.
Her swarthy face with its high cheekbones is typical of Romany tribes and the head, the upper portion of which is covered with bright silken drapery pinned at the back with pins, rests upon a cushion of filmy silk and satin. The hair is braided Gypsy fashion and the dark tresses shine. The body is attired in a Royal robe of Gypsy Green and other bright colors contrasting vividly with the somber hues usual under such circumstances.
Two necklaces are around the neck, one of shells, an heirloom that was descended through generations. The lower part of the body is draped with 'Sacred Linen' treasured by Gypsy bands for the use only when death overtakes one of their numbers. When the children arrive, each will put a memento of some kind in the casket and it will devolve upon the youngest child to place her mother's earrings in the ear."
The queen, who reportedly gave birth to nine sons and five daughters, was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Meridian, beginning a tradition for the Mitchell clan of gypsies. Emil is buried beside Kelly, as are other family members.
The body is attired in a Royal robe of Gypsy Green ... When the children arrive, each will put a memento of some kind in the casket.
Visitors to the grave sites leave trinkets, such as Mardi Gras beads, coins, fruit, whiskey and soft drinks, according to Richard Whitehead, who leads tours at Rose Hill. "We even had one lady who put a coconut cake on there but the fire ants got to it before we could," he said. "It's a big tourist attraction."
The story of King Emil
Kelly's husband, Emil, was born in 1857 and came to America with his parents in 1862. He became king in 1884 at the age of 27 in a ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio. After Kelly's death, he married a woman named Lapa.
He would die Oct. 16, 1942, in Albertville "under a tent much like the one he was born under 85 years earlier," according to gypsyjib.com.
Hundreds of gypsies gathered on Sand Mountain in Marshall County to honor him and then he, too, was transported to Rose Hill Cemetery for burial.
This article with a Mississippi dateline was published Oct. 20, 1942, in The Tuscaloosa News:
"King Emil Mitchell, 85-year old Brazilian born leader of his colorful wanderers, was laid to rest here at sunset Monday with ancient ceremonies that included sprinkling of fruit juices and coins on his grave.
"Mitchell landed at New Orleans with his roaming parents when he was 5 and became king in 1884 the year he obtained American citizenship. Big, white-moustached, he traveled over the world, and was known to tens of thousands.
Only the war, it was explained, prevented the American gypsies from giving their leader a funeral like that for his first wife, who died in 1915. Then a special train brought gypsies from all over the country, three bands supplied music, and the queen was buried here in a gold casket."
Myths of Queen Kelly's grave
The legend of the gold casket is not the only one surrounding Kelly's burial. Whitehead recounted this popular lore: "If you go up there and leave her a trinket, she'll come to you in a dream and solve all your troubles," he said.
Whitehead also doubts the legends that Kelly was buried in a $15,000 gold casket or that 20-dollar gold pieces were tossed into her grave. Why? Mainly because gypsies were known to hoard their money and were unlikely to bury so much of it.
"As far as the cost of the casket, there is no record," Whitehead said. "And the coins the gypsies threw may have been pennies and dimes."
The queen was also said to have been buried with her jewelry but "I'm not even sure that happened," he said.
Still, that hasn't stopped people from trying to rob her grave. Whitehead said three attempts were made, causing damage to the headstone and wolf stone - the tablet lying atop the grave - before the cemetery masons added rebar and concrete."