The legend of "Circus Girl" May Jackson is both heartbreaking and heartwarming and offers a glimpse into the heart and soul of Seward County residents collectively. May Jackson

     May's date and town of birth are not presently known. All that is known is that she was believed born in California. Press reports noted that in addition to being with the Al G. Barnes Circus, May was a "noted exponent of classic dancing and during the past winter [1914 or 1915] was engaged by many of the most exclusive clubs of California--her home state--to give exhibitions of that art." May was a classic circus performer performing numerous parts under the big top: lion tamer, equestrienne and official bugler of the circus.

     May must have been with the Barnes troupe since at least 1912 (when she would have been fifteen years of age) for she had been studying bugle with the Barnes show bandmaster Eddie Woeckener for three years at the time of her death. It was reported many places that May was the only official woman bugler for a circus anywhere in the world at that time. The time spent with Eddie turned to romance.

     In October, 1915 the Al G. Barnes Circus was enroute by train to Liberal, Kansas from a previous engagement either in Pratt or Greensburg, Kansas. Eddie and May had a lover's quarrel with May threatening to do something drastic. Eddie kissed her goodnight, laughed at her threat, and believed they would talk it out the next day. The next morning, the call boy rousting everyone on the overnight train to help set up the tents in Liberal found May dead in her bunk. She had drunk carbolic acid.

Eddie Woeckener     Liberal, Kansas came to a complete standstill on Sunday, October 17, 1915 for the funeral parade, funeral and interment of May Jackson, someone the locals did not know. The funeral parade had all the pageantry of the circus parade and was led by her horse with empty saddle, boots in the stirrups turned backward, the American flag for a blanket, and May's bugle swinging from the saddle. The band followed the minister's car playing the funeral march "Free as a Bird." Next came the pipe band, cowboys and cowgirls, the black stallions, the hearse, the white stallions, all of the circus people and the Liberalites. As the procession crossed the Rock Island Railroad, six white horses, three on each side, bowed low at the signal of the trainer as May's gelding passed. At the rear of the procession was the calliope sobbing out the notes of "Abide with Me."

     At the funeral in the Christian Church, Eddie Woeckener fainted and fell across May's casket. He collapsed again at the grave site. At the foot of the grave, May's gelding stood looking despondently into the grave while Rev H F Bolton read the following verse from Hood's "Bridge of Sighs."

 

One more unfortunate, wear of breath,

Rashly importunate, gone to her death.

Who was her father? Who was her mother?

Had she a sister? Had she a brother?

Or was there a dearer one,

Still, and a nearer one

Yet than all others?

 

May Jackson monument     Eddie Woeckener remembered May until his death. Every year he sent flowers to decorate her grave for Memorial Day and in 1954 local newspaper man Ray Millman received a letter from Eddie with funds to plant six peony bulbs at her grave. Eddie wrote, "I am still wearing the signet ring she gave me and think of her daily. May was too beautiful for this world and I sincerely hope she is in heaven where she belongs. I still have the coach horn I taught her to play." In 1956, word was received that Eddie had passed away the prior winter. However, now being over a century since May's death, beautiful flowers are still found at her grave every Memorial Day. In 1962, Mrs Roy Harrison and Mrs Robert Miller began a fund drive to replace the worn cement grave marker with a proper memorial. Contributions were limited to quarters or a half dollar and by Memorial Day 1963 the new memorial was in place.

     The tragic story of May and Eddie was known far and wide, particularly among circus entertainers. Across the years donations and letters have been received from most corners of the globe including one from Alpha (Davis) McCracken who when donating toward to the new memorial wrote,"I lived with my parents, Mr and Mrs W P Davis, in a dugout 11 miles east of Liberal, and we went to see the circus. They opened the circus by the band playing "Til the Sands of the Desert Grow Cold." Everywhere you looked the stage hands and ticket sellers were weeping. It was the saddest circus I ever attended."

 

Sources

* The Liberal News, Liberal, Kansas, 18 Oct 1915, p 1

*Harry E. Chrisman. Reprinted from The Hutchinson News-Herald, Sunday, Feb. 19, 1956.

*Billboard, 23 Oct 1915