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Memorials in Sligo Park

Memory is a man's real possession. In nothing else is he rich.

Alexander Smith

The plaque for Beanie on the bench at Brunett and Sligo Creek Parkway.

The bench was placed by her sister who lives nearby. The bench overlooks a baseball field and Sligo Creek Park. Beanie's sister writes, "My sister, 'Beanie', and I, 'Miller' had special nicknames we always used for each other since we were little kids. She was Beanie since she was as skinny as a beanpole and I was Miller-killer-diller since I was a bit gutsy and a tomboy. She passed away suddenly in 1997 and a bench nearby in the park was a wonderful way to visit her everyday on my park walks. The saying on the plaque is what she wrote to me in her Christmas card in 1990, which showed two young sisters peeking in awe at the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. I still miss her and the wonderful way she looked at things everyday."

Overlooking the baseball field

Benches memorializing the deaths of two school friends

These two benches are the oldest memorials in Sligo, placed shortly after two eighth graders at Parkside died in 1944, under different circumstances. Hobie's father, head of Pupil Personnel in the school system, had the benches made using contributions from students and teachers and had names chiseled in the marble top. For a long time the benches faced each other at the school (Park Headquarters) entrance. With the arrival of the Parks Department the benches were set at the margin of a new basketball court. The benches are useful as seats, but they have been abused by skateboarders. The author discovered once that the marble top of one bench had recently broken in two, with pieces left on the ground. The Park Manager had it repaired promptly, though the patchwork is evident.

Hobie and Finley were the best of buddies, always together, rambunctious, following fire trucks, generally finding mischief. Hobie contracted a bone disease, evidently cancer, which progressed to the point where his leg had to be removed at the knee, though he continued at school. Then he lost the entire leg. Even so Hobie managed to pump a bicycle with the other leg, and he was seen riding around with Finley on the handlebars. The fun was short-lived, and soon after Hobie died.

Before the school year ended Finey died also, in a freak accident. He was electrocuted when he climbed a telephone pole and touched wires.

This plaque was placed in 1983 across from the Golf Course, in front of a handsome swamp cypress tree. It is slightly upstream from the soccer field bridge, on the edge of the soccer field. The tree is one of ten or so planted by the Park in perhaps the 1950s.

The Ayatollah Khomeini figured frequently in newspapers in 1983, when this plaque was placed. Khomeini was a fundamentalist Muslim who tolerated only Islam in Iran. The Baha'i Faith had been founded in Iran in 1844, and in 1986 about 350,000 Bahais lived in the country, making it the largest minority religion. A few headlines from the Washington Post printed between 1982 and 1984 show why 10,000 Iranis sought asylum abroad in a twenty-year period.

Tehran executes 8 Bahias as spies
Charging persecution in Iran, Bahais again ask UN for Help.
Reagan decries persecution of Bahais in Iran
Wearied by Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic revolution and the debilitating war with Iraq, Iranians are slipping across the Pakistani border in increasing numbers ...

The St. Petersburg Times in Florida reported thousands of Bahais were dismissed from Iranian government jobs in the early 1980s. Baha'i marriages were unrecognized in Iran. This resulted in children who were illegitimate and therefore denied inheritance rights

Several Baha'i Faith Centers exist in the Washington area.

Bench plaque at the playground above Forest Glen Road, between the Trail and Dameron Drive.

JoAnn formerly resided on Tilton Drive. All three of her children attended the Kensington Day Care adjacent to the park area, and JoAnn spent much time at the playground there with her husband and the children. At the time there were no benches for parents to sit on while the children played, which made this bench particularly welcome. JoAnn died from colon cancer when she was in her thirties. She had been cared for by the Holy Cross Hospice. Her neighbors took up a collection and the bench was donated by the Hospital, friends and neighbors.

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