Evening star., 1945-04-21

Woodward Bodies . !.
To Be Buried Monday
In Adjoining Graves

Mrs. Mary Eva Woodward and
her mother. Mrs. Mary Elizabeth
Hutchins woodward, will be buried
in adjoining graves at Fort Lin,
coin Cemetery Monday, a mortician
said today, thus ending fantastic
saga of death.
With the daughters death last
Sunday at the age of II. 1t was
disclosed that she had refused for
80 years to allow her mothers body
to rest in a grave. The mothers
mummified body was, found in the
house at 3405 Holmead place NV.
where the daughter had lived alone
for many years. The body lay en-
shrined in a mahogany coffin in an
upstairs room, glass panel reveal
ing the withered face.
The daughters funeral was held
last night at the Hines funeral
home. The Rev. Howard Anderson,
pastor of the First Congregational
Church, conducted the service.
Daily Visit Recalled.
The mothers body, meanwhile.
released by Coroner A. Magruder
Macdonald, was taken to the fu-
neral home.
Meanwhile, District Court today
was petitioned to establish as the ,
will of the daughter, what was said
to be a carbon copy of the original
will which, it is said, cannot be
found.
In the carbon copy, said to have
been written in 1910, Attorney Isaac
r. Hit, who is named as executor,
Is instructed to place the body of
Mrs. Mary Eva Woodward and her
mother in the chapel vault at Pros
pect Hill Cemetery for year. At
the end Of that time, it is asked
that granite mausoleum be erected
on her fathers lot in q cemetery at
Waterbury, VT, where she wanted
the two bodies placed. If that is
not financially possible, the will
asked that the bodies be buried
here after the expiration of the year.
Property Valued at $500.
The petition lists Mrs. Woodward's
property as including her Holmead
place NV. house, valued at $500.
and personal property valued at
81 900. The will names a number Of
persons to whom she leaves personal,
effects and family heirlooms. The
petition states, however, the rela-
| tionship of the persons has not been
established.
The mother died in st. Louis
March 13, 1912, records found by an
Associated Press correspondent dis
closed definitely. There have been
conflicting reports of where her
death occurred.
In Williamsburg, Pa. near Pitts
burgh, an undertaken recalled
another episode in the elder Mrs.
Woodward's strange journeys after
death.
The mortician. Edgar E. Eaton.
said the body was sent to his estab-
lishment from st. Louis March 80
1912. Mrs. Mary E. Woodward, he
recalled, asked that the body be kept
there and came every day to sit
beside 1t for hours. She always
brought a cat, he remembered. She
would come during the forenoon
and would stay until nightfalL
/ peculiar Dresser"
/ She continued these strange rites
until, after four and a half months,
the health authorities ordered that
the body be buried or removed. So
Mrs. Woodward on August 80 had
the body sent to Washington.
| Mr.. Eaton thought the cat which
was her constant companion in
those days may have been the one
whose stuffed body was found in q
trunk in the house on Holmead
place. Five live cats and a dog also
were roaming about the house
One of Mr.. Eaton's daughters re-
membered Mrs. Woodward, recall
ing: She was a peculiar dresser.
She dressed almost in the fashion
of her youth-the styles of 1885 or
1890"
The Washington police have eH-
dence that when the body of the
mother was brought to Washington.
1t was placed for about a year in a
vault at Oak Hill Cemetery and
later was sent to Philadelphia for
additional embalming. But efforts
to learn further details have been
futile. Police do not know when
the coffin was placed in the up
| stairs room in tho 6aurhter's horoe