As we begin Black History Month and continue celebrating the Centennial of Highway 40, we simply can’t pass up the chance to talk about the African American cemetery on the Business Loop. Calvary Cemetery was established in 1929 to provide an alternative to Memorial Park Cemetery during segregation. It was platted by Alex L. Hicks, a Black farmer who owned the land, and is a "Lawn Park" cemetery where the headstones are placed flush with the ground.
It's the final resting place of the Mitchell, Smith and Rickets families--as well famous Black businesswoman and biscuit-maker Annie Fisher.
It’s also the gravesite of Negro League pitcher and manager Big Bill Gatewood, of the Chicago American Giants, the St. Louis Stars, and many other teams. At 6’ 7” and 240 lbs, this spitballer certainly earned his nickname. According to the New York Times, “Gatewood won 117 games for more than a dozen teams from 1906 to 1928 and pitched the first documented no-hitter in the newly organized Negro National League, in 1921. He threw another in 1926, when he was 45. As a manager, he mentored Cool Papa Bell, converting him from pitcher to star outfielder, and coached that quirky right-hander named Satchel Paige.”
In his later years Gatewood lived on Ash St., worked here in Columbia, and coached a semi-pro baseball team over in Moberly. He died at Ellis Fischel in December of 1962 and was buried in Calvary Cemetery. But despite having friends and family, there was no one able to purchase a headstone. Due to a fire where all the cemetery records were lost, the location of many of the graves, including Gatewood’s, fell into obscurity. In 2010, as the result of the efforts by the Negro Leagues Grave Marker Project, Big Bill Gatewood’s grave was located and his headstone finally placed.
The cemetery is now part of Memorial Park Cemetery and is one of Columbia's Most Notable Properties.
