may, gardy, and vic anderson
tragedy at the circus
A truly interesting photo labeled May, Gardy, and Vic Anderson. I had thought that this was merely a publicity shot for an act at the fair or perhaps some stage performance in town. People passing through. (This is Photo 95.)
Then Delores Penkava shared the above photo of a house with me (now Photo 2479). On the back, she wrote this:
"Gardy Anderson and wife lived in this house. His wife died in a circus act -- she threw knives!" So May Anderson, who lived in this house, shot apples off her husband's head for a living. She must have been good, as he lived longer than her. However, whoever threw the knives was apparently not a good a knife thrower as she was a sharp shooter. Note that Delores also said that the house had been known as the Ole Graham's house and that her dad, Bruce McCourtney, had been best friends with Ole's son. |
Here is the last piece of this little study of a Table Rock couple. On a sunny afernoon in September 2015 -- a month after Delores had shared the picture of Gardy Anderson's house -- I ran across a tombstone that was buried under a profuse stand of dead peonies. It had a thick mat of dried mowed grass on it that I had trouble getting off. I almost gave up and walked on, as I had come here to photograph a different headstone and was in a hurry. I'm glad I took a closer look. Here's the stone:
Visit May and Garcy in the middle of the southwest quarter of the Table Rock Cemetery. Now you know what they look like, and a little bit about them. Consider what an exciting (and probably hard) life they must have led with their circus act. She was 59 when she died in 1932, the tragic victim of a knife.