Vandals deface William Rufus King mausoleum at Old Live Oak Cemetery

Vandals defaced the marble mausoleum of William Rufus King in Old Live Oak Cemetery with black paint, cemetery officials said. 

Doug Buster, president of the Cemetery Preservation Group, said the supplies needed to properly clean the marble mausoleum were on hand.

“It still took about four and a half hours to undo what (the vandals) did in a matter of seconds,” Buster said. “But we were able to remove it and not do any damage to the marble.” 

Buster said he received a phone call Sept. 23 informing him of the vandalism, which apparently had taken place earlier that morning. When he got to the cemetery, he saw that the vandals had defaced the King mausoleum with a gallon of black paint. Buster said that damage to a grave or tomb in an amount over $2,500 is a Class C felony punishable by one to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $15,000.

King is Alabama’s only vice president of the United States. The mausoleum dates back to 1853.

Buster said vandalizing graves is disrespectful and can cut into the income of the city. Selma’s cemeteries are major tourist attractions, attracting over 80,000 tourists annually, Buster explained. “They are essentially outdoor museums,” Buster said. “The people buried there are the people who founded the city.” 

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Walking through a cemetery is stepping back in time. They tell the story of an area, and in few places do they have such interesting stories as Selma’s Old Live Oak Cemetery, he said. 

“Not only do we have the one and only vice president from Alabama buried there, we also have the first African American ever to be elected to the United States Congress, Benjamin Sterling Turner,” Buster said. “The dining area at the St. James, the Sterling Room, is named in his honor. He used to run the St. James.”

“You can walk back in history and read about the people,” Buster said. “We have a walking tour brochure at Old Live Oak, and we plan to do that for Lorenzo Harrison Memorial Gardens because we want to point out all of the people that were part of the Civil Rights Movement – the foot soldiers and educators like R.B. Hudson, who did some good things way before the Civil Rights Movement. We’ve got some real heroes buried in these cemeteries.” 

Buster pointed out that the cemeteries in Selma have always been integrated. 

Anyone with information that would lead to the arrest of the person or persons who did this is asked to call Selma Police.