Dillard Tolbert’s grave lay unmarked for 53 years until last month, when a marker was placed with donations raised by a former schoolmate.
Dillard, a second-grade classmate of my brother Kevin, was struck and killed by a truck as he walked home from school on May 2, 1968. His passing was difficult for the boys and girls in his class at a Catholic grade school in our Kansas hometown. The children had celebrated their First Communion in April.
The Rev. Bill McEvoy (just “Billy” in those days and a lifelong family friend) was a first-grader at the school when Dillard was killed. Like my brother and the other kids, Billy, now Father Bill, found the death a hard lesson learned too early.
Earlier this year, Father Bill visited the cemetery and stopped at Dillard’s grave. When he saw the boy didn’t have a gravestone, he set up a fund and raised enough from donations to purchase and place a marker.
So, on a bright September morning, Father Bill, Kevin and other classmates gathered with Dillard’s family to remember their friend.
Thank you, Liz, for this eloquent post and video. Such a beautiful rendition of that lament.
Thanks Darlene!