Corinne Elliott Lawton Died on January 24th, 1877. The lore surrounding her tells the story of a young woman who fell in love with a man below her station in society – a man her family could not accept. Refusing to give their blessing, her family forced her to marry a wealthy man she did not love.
One her wedding day, the story goes, dressed in her gown, she took her father’s best horse to the shore of the Savannah river and drowned herself rather than marry the man her family chose.
It’s a tragic story of love and sorrow told, and retold, to visitors of Savannah’s Bonaventure Cemetery where this memorial statue stands. It’s a tale overshadowed only by the tragedy of how little truth there is to it.
In truth, according to the diary of her mother, Corinne died of a sudden illness accompanied by a fever.
From her mother’s diary:
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“In the evening of Sat. 13, Corinne went to bed, promising Lulu & me that she would keep her bed till she was well. How that promise was to be fulfilled, who could have tho’t? Her sickness seemed so light.
On Sunday I sent for Dr. Houston. After church many of the family came in – some to inquire after the sick ones, some to see Florie Lawton who arrived Thursday. Among the visitors was Wallace Cumming – his last visit to us!
Corinne felt very weak & begged me not to have her see any visitors – as she could not talk. Yet very little seemed the matter. All that week she was in bed & had light fever at times. Thursday night her aunt Lou Gilmer stayed & slept in her room,
Lulu being sick.
Friday evening she was very bright but had a restless night. I watched beside her much of the night. Saturday night I stayed with her. Then came the days of darkness which I cannot record. Their story is kept by Him who has said: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
Wednesday morning, Jan. 24, at 7:40 A. M. she drew her last breath.”
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Corinne most likely died of Yellow Fever – a disease with a sudden onset and a mortality rate of 50% in severe epidemics. Savannah did suffer an epidemic of Yellow Fever in 1876 that continued into early 1877 when Corrine died. She was 30 years old.
Many thanks to Ruth Rawls whose blog and research were instrumental in telling the true tale of Corinne Lawton.
You can read more from Ruth Rawls about Corinne at this link.
my pleasure Ruth. Thank you for the hard work and research you did. I relied on your material
It’s almost the anniversary of her death 137 years ago. Yet her image and her story are still corrupted by local “storytellers” who profit by selling spots on their tours. So many people search her out and land on my blog in an effort to find out more about her. My hope is that more and more people like yourself will promote her true story, and eventually overpower the lies.
My daughter is almost exactly the same age as Corinne was when she died. If, 137 years from now, lies are told about my child, who will stand up for her?
I am so glad to see more and more people posting the truth. Ruth paved the way for the truth to be known about Corinne’s life and death. When I found her research awhile back, I also wrote an in depth article on my blog Dreaming Casually, in the hopes that more and more people would be directed to Ruth’s research and facts. Glad to see more people are directing the masses to the truth for a change. Also, very effective and concise post by the way.– J’aime Rubio, Author
While it is true the Yellow Fever was taking a toll in Savannah in 1876 and 77, doctors we have spoken to have told us the symptoms noted in Sarah Cunningam’s journal more likely were those of pneumonia. That is the cause of death our tour guides refer to as most likely when taking visitors to the Lawton site.
Lee Maltenfort
Chairman
Bonaventure Historical Society
We took the BHS tour, and it was excellent. No mention was made of Corinne at all. I never get any referrals from the BHS tours, which leads me to believe that accuracy at the BHS is more important than sensationalism. And why wouldn’t it?
I agree with Lee’s findings, I have always believed Corinne died from pneumonia as her symptoms mimicked the ones I had when I almost died of pneumonia as well. This can be found in my investigation on Corinne’s story which I published back in 2013 on my blog and in my book “More Stories of the Forgotten” back in 2016.
Corinne is spelled incorrectly in this article.
It is CORINNE not Corrine
OOps, I misspelled Lawton (just a happy computer key)
fixed, and…now we’re even 😉 Thanks for pointing that out
I’m trying to learn whether you are a descendant of Corinne Lawton Jordan, grandmother of Hamilton Jordan, President Carter’s Chief of Staff. Corinne is buried here in Macon’s Rose Hill Cemetery.
hi Rick, being arab, and born in the middle east, i very much doubt I am related to Corinne!
I did one of the tour today and found the story extremely interesting and thus I stumbled upon this site. Is there a better explanation a to the statue and why it was done?
Hello, can’t say i have any more detail about the construction of the statue. Perhaps the cemetery has more information?
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© Copyright Ali Elhajj 2014-2020
Thank you for publishing the correct story!