Evansville History: Queen of Gypsies Buried at Oak Hill Cemetery
BY JOHNNY KINCAID
MARCH 29, 2024
The 128th anniversary of a huge “Royal” funeral in Evansville. The “Queen of the Gypsies” Elizabeth Stanley Harrison, was laid to rest in Oakhill Cemetery on April 1, 1896.
Elizabeth and her husband Isaac were the leaders of the Romany gypsies when the tribe migrated from England to the United States in the mid-1800s.
In Evansville, the Harrisons and Elisabeth’s brother, Adam Stanley, owned a large tract of land along Stringtown Road near Pigeon Creek. They lived in a large Victorian mansion in what is now the 500 block of Olmstead Avenue. That home was the scene of an annual convention of the gypsies and Tribe members would pitch tents and camp on the land around the mansion.
Elizabeth died in Corinth, MS, in November 1895, and her body was brought back to Evansville for burial. But, time was needed to allow the Gypsie tribe members to travel to attend the funeral and the body was stored for five months.
The funeral was the most prominent in Evansville’s history. Newspaper reports said over 6,000 people gathered at Oak Hill Cemetary to watch. Many spectators had heard that her wagon and possessions would all be burned. The spectacle didn’t happen; instead, it was a simple, short ceremony conducted by a Presbyterian minister.
Four years later, Isaac was killed while breaking up a fight between his sons. His body was held for three weeks until he was buried at Oak Hill Cemetary. The couple’s burial site is marked with an obelisk in section 23 near a statue of a Confederate soldie
