I had time enough in the afternoon to
check out Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It was only twenty miles away from where
we were camped. I had read somewhere that Doc Holliday, the famous itinerant,
drunken dentist, lies a-molding in the Lynwood Cemetery. I stopped and asked
two smiling, jovial, good old boys who were drinking beer on the front steps of
a gas station where I might find the cemetery where Doc Holliday was planted. Their
directions lead me a couple miles out of town and to the Rosebud Cemetery,
definitely the wrong place. On the way back, I stopped and asked a man who was
watering in his front yard. He gave me great direction; he knew right where to
go. I followed them to the tee and the street I finally turned up was at the
very same corner where the two smiling, jovial, good old boys gave me their
fine directions. Now, you don't suppose those two guys were having fun with me?
Nah.
Anyway,
I got to the cemetery trailhead and parked the car. This was the right place. A
sign pointed the way to the cemetery, up a steep trail. I found out later, no
one knows exactly where Doc Holliday is buried. It's an unmarked grave
somewhere in the cemetery. A sign explained with words to this effect: John
Holliday arrived in Glenwood Springs in last stages of the disease know then as
consumption. He worked in the gambling houses. People liked him. When he died,
they passed the hat and collected enough money to bury him. A Midwestern gang
threatened to steal the body, so Doc's employers hid him away for several years
in the basement of a local house. When they felt it was safe, they buried him
in an unmarked grave. I guess they wanted to make sure he stayed put. Years
later, when he had become bigger than life because of his dealings with the
Earps and the OK Corral shootout, a nice monument was carved and placed in the
cemetery. It reads, "Doc Holliday, 1852 – 1887. He died in bed." A
smaller headstone explains that this is not the actual burial site.
Wait
a minute, I’ve seen the movies. The first one was My Darling Clementine, starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt and Victor
Mature as Holliday. In the big shoot out Doc is firing away from behind a rail
fence when he gets shot and dies right in the middle of a coughing spell ...The
End. But in Tombstone, Doc dies moments after a poignant, deathbed visit from
Wyatt Earp. The camera moves in for a close up. Holliday is weak. His eyes
blood shot. There are beads of sweat on his brow and he is unable to feel his
toes. He smiles and whispers his last words, “Well, I’ll be damned.” ... The
End.
Of course My Darling
Clementine, got it all wrong, what do you expect it’s a movie. At least Tombstone is accurate in one respect,
Doc Holliday, as the cemetery epitaph says, died in bed.
Q
