On my first trip to Fox Lake, Wisconsin by son took me to see a memorial dedicated to Bunny Berigan.

I love swing music so of course I was familiar with Bunny Berigan’s music. He was wonderful:

Last month I was back in Fox Lake to visit my son and his family for Halloween ( my FAVE HOLIDAY ) and he chose Saint Mary’s for me to explore and take photos of. He was determined to find Bunny’s grave . Eventually have walking around for a bit, we did we found Bunny’s well tended grave with a trumpet on his headstone.

But this wasn’t just Bunny’s grave resting that we found under a weather worn tree , this was a family grave site.

After I got home and started to organize my cemetery pictures, I checked the names on the headstones to make sure I had the relationships to Bunny down correctly.

His daughter Joyce was an easy one because her information is right there on her memorial. His parents were easy to verify too. His brother Donald is buried behind him.

Resting at the foot of Bunny’s grave is his daughter Barbara Ann.

Barbara Ann died in infancy and she died on Bunny’s Birthday- which was November 2nd.

It was a sad thing to run across, sadder still is that when I put her name into Wikipedia, I got the message:

Barbara Ann Berigan does not exist.

Bunny Berigan was only 33 years old when he died in New York City.

His  suffered from  cirrhosis which had severely damaged his liver. He was told to stop drinking and to stop playing the trumpet and he did neither of those things. People have written about why Bunny drank hard- the stresses of managing his career being one. But I’m not so sure about that.

I think that little memorial at the foot of his grave may have made his life a little harder to live and a little harder to bear.

Barbara Ann may not exist in the Wikipedia Universe, but she existed in her Father’s and maybe she haunted him as children who leave us early do.

For Writober Halloween Photo challenge: HAUNTING