Marble Bust (Lida Croom Hodges) - Wharton City Cemetery - Wharton TX USA - Funerary Art on Waymarking.com

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)

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.

The tombstone reads as follows:

[bust of Lida Croom Hodges]

[front]
LIDA

Daughter of
W. J. & LIDA T. DENNIS
CROOM

Beloved Wife of
J. FRANK HODGES

Born
Nov. 26, 1874
Entered Into
Life Eternal
Nov. 25, 1911
Age 37 years, less 1 day

[back]

Oh! Lida, will Papa
ne’er more behold thee,
See thy sweet face again,
Nor hear your merry laughter.
No not here my daughter,
But - surely I will in Heaven.

[on base]

ERECTED BY
“MY PRECIOUS PAPA,”
WHO WORSHIPED ME AS
HE DID HIS GOD.

This is all sooo - Freudian!

James Franklin Hodges' tombstone is waymarked here: (visit link)

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Date Logged Log   04/27/2022 Benchmark Blasterz visited it