In all the thousands of graves at Atlanta's historic and beautiful Oakland Cemetery, only one is occupied by a child's beloved pet Mockingbird, named Tweet.
Tweet is buried under a tombstone carved in the shape of the Lamb, since the tombstone carver did not know how to render a Mockingbird. Tweet is located on the corner of the Weimer family burial plot, near its owner.
This grave is one of the highlights of the self-guided Oakland Cemetery tour, and is featured in the self-guided tour booklet as follows:
"70. TWEET, THE MOCKINGBIRD (d 1874) was one of several beloved family pets buried in Oakland. The grave has a lamb for a headstone because the stone carver could not depict a Mockingbird."
From Find-A-Grave: (
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"Birth: unknown
Death: Jan. 24, 1874
Tweet The Mockingbird was a family pet. When it died, its owner, Molly Weimer, hired a stonecutter to make a sculpture of a bird. According to legend, the man couldn't create a bird, so a lamb was used instead. The family placed the lamb over the bird's grave in the Weimer family plot."
From the book The Historic Oakland Cemetery of Atlanta: Speaking Stones
By Cathy J. Kaemmerlen
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"MOLLY WEIMER AND TWEET
Molly (Frederica) Weimer and her pet Mockingbird, tweet, are the first known owner/pet burials at Oakland. Tweet died in 1874 and Molly in 1899 at the age of 74.
When Tweet died, Molly requested a carved Mockingbird for the pets headstone. The stonecutter couldn't use such a small stone or cut such a small figure, having neither the tools nor the skill to do it, so he made a lamb, a stock figure often used for infant markers. Thus a small lamb rests on the grave of Tweet, Frederia Weimer's mockingbird, in an easy to overlook corner site close to the bell tower.
Tweet is a very popular stop on Oakland's Tours. Bev Center, known Atlanta storyteller and Oakland lover, tells this true story of what happened when she stopped by Tweet's gravesite to share his story with visitors: "as I stood beside their graves telling a story of Mrs. Molly Weimer and her beloved Mockingbird, Tweet, we heard a fluttering of wings. Over our heads flew a Mockingbird who then perched on a branch of the little tree near the graves." No doubt this local Mockingbird did want to miss out on the telling of his favorite Oakland story."