Live Oak Cemetery Tours bring history to life
by Emma Ellard
Dueling entrepreneurs, jazz legends and Gilded Age socialites all populate Live Oak Cemetery in Pass Christian. Each year at the Live Oak Cemetery Tours, Lori Fisher and her dedicated band of reenactors bring their stories back to life.
Fisher, a former Pass Christian Middle School gifted teacher, began organizing the tours when she and her students were tasked with designing a community outreach program. Their investigation of the cemetery across the street led them to uncover troves of untold stories from Pass Christian’s past. The students’ project grew into a fundraiser, and, eventually, into an annual tradition. What began as a short program put on by thirty-five middle schoolers became a historical reenactment project with over one hundred twenty volunteers.
“I cannot express how it has grown leaps and bounds,” Fisher said.
On November 8 and 9, the Live Oak Cemetery Tours will return for their second year since Fisher’s retirement. The Live Oak Cemetery Association, in conjunction with the Trinity Episcopal Church and the Pass Christian Historical Society, sponsors the tours. They recruit the help of Fisher and volunteers ages fifteen and up to organize and present the tours. The program features dramatized retellings of the stories of those buried in Live Oak Cemetery.
“The tours are historical,” Fisher emphasized. “I know this time of year, people think “cemetery,” they think “spooky.” That is not it at all.”
On both nights, tours will begin at 5 p.m. at the gates of Live Oak Cemetery. New tours will start every ten to fifteen minutes and last around an hour; up to six groups can tour the cemetery at a time. Tours end at 8 p.m.
This year, those waiting outside the gate can also enjoy live musical stylings from Trinity Episcopal Church, as well as refreshments from various food and drink trucks.
Visitors of all ages can enjoy the tours, whether they want to learn historical facts, watch the actors’ performances, or simply enjoy a hot chocolate and a scenic walk. Even those who have attended tours in the past can find something fresh this year; Fisher, who writes and directs the scenes, has updated the scripts.
“I always say [the tours] are ‘historically entertaining,’” Fisher said. “We try to add some humor and an entertainment-type element – it’s not just a dry speech. There’s banter going on between characters. Every scene is completely different from the next.”
Although the stories of those buried in Live Oak date back to the 1800s, the tour volunteers seek to make them as fresh and exciting as ever. Live Oak Cemetery is located at 399-301 St. Louis Street in Pass Christian. Tickets are $5; admission for those twelve and under is free. Organizers request that each person purchasing a ticket bring cash to buy the ticket. More information can be found on the Live Oak Cemetery Tours Facebook page, or call 228-669-9511. 
