An archive in progress
Oklahoma Cemeteries and the Stories They Tell
A decade of fieldwork by Dr. Shelley Martin — an archive of the small cemeteries scattered across Oklahoma, the people interred in them, and the stories that connect them.
Stories / 04
From the archive
May 10, 2026
The Dead Outlaw
Elmer McCurdy spent eight months as a robber and sixty-six years as a corpse. The route home ran through a Long Beach funhouse.
Apr 12, 2026
The Schoolteacher's Last Pupil
A forty-four-year career, a one-room schoolhouse on the rise above the river, and the boy who came back as an old man to put a stone where there had been none.
Mar 28, 2026
By the Light of the Lantern
Four hundred recorded births, a midwife's bag passed through three generations, and the grave at Greenleaf where the inscription was chosen by the children she delivered.
About the author
Dr. Shelley Martin
Dr. Shelley Martin is a professor of education at Oklahoma State University. For the last decade she has researched the small cemeteries scattered across Oklahoma — walking the grounds, reading the stones, and tracing the people buried there back into the records that survive.
This site is the working archive that accompanies her forthcoming book of the same name. New entries are added as the research continues.
More about Dr. MartinSubscribe
Be the first to know when the book is available.
Subscribe for occasional updates from Dr. Martin — new stories from the archive, and word when the book is ready.
The Archive
- Cemeteries07
- Counties07
- People09
- Stories04