Haunted Arizona: Examiner's own Debe Branning gives historic cemetery walk this weekend

October 24, 12:50 PMTucson Getaways ExaminerNancy Dickinson

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On October 25, 2009, to raise funds for the protection of the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park, Debe Branning, Examiner.com's Arizona Haunted Sites Examiner, will be hosting a haunted, historical tour of the cemetery.

Visiting cemeteries isn't exactly to the liking of many people when  they are planning a day trip or visit to a city.  For Debe Branning, though, it's not a requirement, it's a need.  To further her love of cemeteries, she put together a tour of the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park that includes actors dressed as the deceased they represent, telling the story of how they died as you pass their graves.

In the past, some of the older cemeteries in and around Phoenix, mostly historical, had fallen to neglect and disrepair.  A group of people combined to form the Pioneer Cemetery Association (PCA) in the 1930's.  However, the group eventually fell to the wayside and it wasn't until 1989 the PCA re-formed to tend the historical cemeteries in Phoenix.  Branning became a member of this group, eventually becoming a member of the board, and the cemetery tours were begun.

To make the tour interesting, Branning added actors to various graves, complete in costume showing the manner of death of the "resident" and all funds raised from the tours goes towards the restoration efforts at not just this cemetery but seven others around the city.

Headstone of Martha Beatty, an elderly women who met her untimely demise when her caregiver left her in the tub at the bath house for too long.  Photo credit: Debe Branning

This year's tour includes the deathly tales of:

•  Martha Beatty, an elderly woman who died in the bath house waiting for her caregiver to retrieve her. 
• Rose Gregory, the madam shot to death as she slept 
• Ethel Kent, a young woman who managed to survive brain surgery--but met her fate to a gun shot in the foot. 
•   Letitia Rise, a soiled dove burned to death when she came home inebriated and kicked over a lamp
• Tom Graham, a young cowboy who was delivering grain to the Hayden Mills and was ambushed near the Buttes.
• Red Nelson, a carnival showman who fell from a hot air ballon and onto someone's house
• Amos Randal, ironically, Amos was an undertaker who died while performing his job in the cemetery.
• Jacob Waltz was known as the Lost Dutchman who carried a heavy secret, which he took with him to the grave.