Benjamin Beeson (?-1837?)

    Benjamin Beeson (or Beason), one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, received title to his land in Colorado County on August 7, 1824. He operated a ferry on the Colorado River at the site of present Columbus, where his wife, Elizabeth, kept an inn. In April 1836 the Beeson family was at Harrisburg, where Mrs. Beeson operated a boarding house. Benjamin Beeson died before March 9, 1837; the Telegraph and Texas Register of March 14, 1837, carried a notice that William B. DeWees, Leander Beeson, and Abel Beeson were administrators of his estate. Source

Note: Beason's grave location has been lost over time, but he is known to have been buried in this cemetery. The photograph below is of the oldest section where he most likely rests.

Old City Cemetery
Columbus

 

COORDINATES 

N/A

Thomas Green (1814-1864)

    Thomas Green, military leader, was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, on June 8, 1814, to Nathan and Mary (Field) Green. The family moved to Tennessee in 1817. Green attended Jackson College in Tennessee and Princeton College in Kentucky before he received a degree from the University of Tennessee in 1834. He then studied law with his father, a prominent judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court. When the Texas Revolution began, he left Tennessee to join the volunteers. He reached Nacogdoches by December 1835 and enrolled for military service on January 14, 1836. He became one of Isaac N. Moreland's company, which operated the Twin Sisters cannons in the battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. A few days after the battle Green was commissioned a lieutenant; in early May he was made a major and aide-de-camp to Thomas J. Rusk. He resigned on May 30 to continue studying law in Tennessee.

    When he returned and settled in Texas in 1837, he was granted land in reward for his army service and became a county surveyor at La Grange, Fayette County. After his nomination by fellow San Jacinto veteran William W. Gant, he was elected engrossing clerk for the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas, a post he held until 1839, when he represented Fayette County in the House of the Fourth Congress. After a term he chose not to run again and resumed the office of engrossing clerk. During the Sixth and Eighth congresses he served as secretary of the Senate. From 1841 to 1861 he was clerk of the state Supreme Court.

    Between legislative and court sessions Green served in military campaigns against the Indians and Mexico. In late 1841 he joined Capt. Mark Lewis in a foray up the Colorado River against the Comanches. After Rafael Vásquez's invasion of San Antonio in March 1842, Green recruited and served as captain of the Travis County Volunteers, a unit that did not see battle. That fall he served as inspector general for the Somervell expedition after Adrián Woll's foray into San Antonio. When the United States went to war with Mexico, Green recruited and commanded a company of Texas Rangers in La Grange as part of the First Texas Regiment of Mounted Riflemen, led by John C. Hays. The Texans helped Zachary Taylor capture Monterrey, Nuevo León, in September 1846. After returning home, Green married Mary Wallace Chalmers, daughter of John G. Chalmers, on January 31, 1847. Five daughters and one son were born to them.

    After secession in 1861, Green was elected colonel of the Fifth Texas Volunteer Cavalry, which, as part of a brigade led by Gen. H. H. Sibley, joined the invasion of New Mexico in 1862. There Green led the Confederate victory at the battle of Valverde in February. After a difficult retreat into Texas he led his men, aboard the river steamer Bayou City, to assist in the recapture of Galveston on January 1, 1863. In the spring of 1863 Green commanded the First Cavalry Brigade in fighting along Bayou Teche in Louisiana. On May 20 he became a brigadier general. In June he captured a Union garrison at Brashear City but failed to seize Fort Butler on the Mississippi. At Cox's Plantation he defeated a Union advance in July. In September the First Cavalry captured another Union detachment at Stirling's Plantation. A similar success followed in November at Bayou Burbeaux. In four victories Green's men inflicted about 3,000 casualties and suffered only 600. In April 1864 he led a division in successful attacks against Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks at the battle of Mansfield and against Maj. Gen. William H. Emory at the battle of Pleasant Hill. A few days later, on April 12, 1864, Green died while leading an attack on federal gunboats patrolling the Red River at Blair's Landing. He was buried in the family plot at Oakwood Cemetery in Austin. Tom Green County was named for him in 1874. Source 

Section 1
Oakwood Cemetery
Austin

COORDINATES

30° 16.566-097° 43.703

George Thomas "Mickey" Leland (1944-1989)

    Mickey Leland, legislator, was born in Lubbock, Texas, on November 27, 1944. Soon after his birth, his father abandoned the family, and his mother moved to Houston where she worked in a drugstore and later became a teacher. After enjoying a successful career as a high school sports star in Houston, Leland entered Texas Southern University in 1965. He received a pharmacy degree and practiced the profession for several years. Leland soon entered the public realm by utilizing the tense political environment of the 1960s to help Houston's poor. He pressured Houston health officials to set up community clinics. During this time, as an active member of the black Community Action team, he worked towards other reform measures. In north Houston, he worked with an archetype health system for Casa del Amigos. In the Fifth Ward, Houston, Leland helped initiate a free community health clinic called the Jensen Medical Referral Service. In 1972, supported by philanthropist John de Menil, Leland was elected to the Texas House of Representatives. He was re-elected twice for two-year terms in the House. During this time he worked as the director of special development projects for Herman Hospital and functioned as the vice president of King State Bank. Leland is especially remembered in the Texas House for promoting legislation that allowed for the prescription of generic drugs and fostered state employment opportunities for minorities.

    In 1978 Leland constructed the National Black-Hispanic Democratic Coalition that drew attention at the Democratic midterm convention in Memphis. Leland took the congressional seat vacated by Barbara Jordan of Houston later that same year. Leland served actively for over ten years in the United States House of Representatives. Many members considered his style flamboyant with his dashiki, Afro haircut, and eccentric hats. Eventually Leland abandoned these more unconventional characteristics and made attempts to establish bipartisan relationships. However, his commitment to hunger and hopelessness did not waver. During his dedicated years in Congress, Leland chaired the Congressional Black Caucus; he served as a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee; and in 1984 he helped in establishing the Select Committee on Hunger, which pushed Congress to approve $8 million annually for an incremental Vitamin A program in the Third World that is believed to have reduced child mortality. The committee has also fought for measures to improve hunger conditions for impoverished neighborhoods in the United States. However, Leland's trip to the Sudan in the spring of 1989 influenced him unlike any other previous experiences. That trip marked the beginning of tenacious efforts aimed primarily at aiding the Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia. On Leland's sixth visit to Africa on August 7, 1989, his plane crashed into a mountainside on the way to visit the Fugnido refugee camp. The camp held more than 300,000 Sundanese escaping famine and war in their adjacent country. The plane, carrying sixteen people, was found after a six day search in southwestern Ethiopia. Leland's dedication and service were honored at services throughout the state of Texas and in Washington, D.C.. Leland's wife, Alison, survived him and was six weeks pregnant at his death. In January 1990 she gave birth to twin sons. Source 

Block 1
Golden Gate Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 84.003, -095° 32.522

Lisa Gaye (1935-2016)

    Born Leslie Gaye Griffin on March 6, 1935 in Denver, Colorado, Lisa came from a show-business family. Her mother, Marguerite, performed in vaudeville theaters and nightclubs as Margaret Allen, and Lisa's three siblings all went into acting - sister Debralee, who became Debra Paget; sister Marcia, who became Teala Loring; and brother Frank, who spent a decade as an actor before becoming a leading makeup artist. When Marcia landed a film contract with Paramount, the family moved to Los Angeles and Leslie was taught dancing and acting at the Hollywood Professional School. She made her stage début as a dancer in The Merry Wives of Windsor, starring Charles Coburn, at the Los Angeles Biltmore Theatre. At the start of her Universal contract in January 1953 (her mother insisted that she and her sister work for different studios to avoid competition) she adopted the stage name Lisa Gaye and was given lessons in drama, singing, dancing, fencing and horse riding. She made her feature-film debut in a bit part in The Glenn Miller Story (1954) as one of a mob of teenagers. She was Audie Murphy’s reserved fiancée in Drums Across the River (1954), co-starred in Shake Rattle and Rock (1956) and seemed well on her way to mainstream success; however, the studio dropped her after little more than two years, partially because a back injury meant that she had to wear a brace.

    Gaye left the studio system and appeared alongside Dean Martin in Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), in which she dances to an Italian version of Rock Around the Clock. In La Cara del Terror (1962), a Spanish thriller, she played an escaped asylum patient whose disfigured face is restored to beauty by Fernando Rey’s pioneering doctor - until the serum wears off, of course. Night of Evil (1962) gave Gaye her only top billing, as a raped high-school cheerleader who becomes a stripper, then commits armed robbery. Night of Evil received dismal reviews on release and she decided to seek other outlets for her acting. She broke into television in the mid-50s, first in small cameo roles in sitcoms like The Burns and Allen Show, but it was in Westerns that Gaye found her niche. Her horse-riding experience proved invaluable as she dipped into episodes of more than 20 popular series, from Annie Oakley (1956), Northwest Passage (1958), Cheyenne (1960), Rawhide (1960), Maverick (1961) and The Wild Wild West (1966-1967). In Death Valley Days alone, between 1960 and 1969, she acted in 10 different roles. In 1955, Lisa married Bently Ware, a business executive, and in 1970 retired from acting to raise their daughter, Janell. Following her husband's death from a heart attack in 1977, she moved to Houston, where she worked for nineteen years as a receptionist at KETH Channel 14, a local religious television station. Gaye passed away on July 14, 2016 and encrypted at the Houston National Cemetery.

Section C-14
Houston National Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 55.837, -095° 26.765