“The Memory of Elizabeth Reed” - Allman Brothers

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Sometimes songs have a meaning, sometimes they don’t, and sometimes we will never know what a song was about.  As I traveled through Macon, Georgia visiting my father, he took me to a place where the song “The Memory of Elizabeth Reed” started where life ends: a cemetery called “Rose Hill Cemetery.”

Everyone dreams of being idolized in a song. Women or men who are portrayed in the harmony of a hit song is the ultimate respect, and must be someone the writers thought highly of.  So what impact did Elizabeth Reed have on this band?

If you don’t know, The Memory of Elizabeth Reed was written by Macon’s own Allman Brothers Band.  A group Georgians adore, and the town of Macon idolizes.  You would figure that when the band was traveling from pub to pub making public appearances, Elizabeth Reed must have been their number one fan, a girlfriend or someone very special to the Allman Brothers.  Why else would they immortalize her in song?  The truth is, Elizabeth Reed never met the Allman Brothers, and they never knew her personally yet she did play a huge part in the success of this great American legend.

In reality, Elizabeth Reed was the wife of Briggs F. Napier, and she died in 1935, almost 30 years before the Allman Brothers would even pick up a guitar.  She is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery located in downtown Macon. It is a beautiful cemetery filled with Civil War heroes, state senators, and other dignitaries of the town. Its vast landscape has rolling hills, and is bordered by a train used by the slaves for the Underground Railroad. It’s this cemetery, the Allman Brothers loved to visit and play their music in.  Yes, you heard me right; they loved to go into the cemetery, bring some friends, and play some music while downing a few cold ones.

Elizabeth Reed’s grave happened to be the spot of choice for the Allman Brothers.  Where she is buried is perfect for what they were looking for acoustically. The wall of the family plot is raised from the slope below making it a great little stage.  The head of the plot is surrounded by another small hill making the acoustics powerful.  And if you look at the grave, they could sit on her stone and not get dirty since they didn’t have to sit on the grass.  It was truly perfect, and people would come every week to hear them practice some of their legendary songs we all know today, and had a grand ol’ time.

So even though she never met the brothers, she never even got to hear their music; nor be wooed by the fact they named a song after her; she greatly impacted the band. America may not have even known the Allman Brothers today without her. They felt they could not honor her in any better way than making a song dedicated to her.  Some Maconites swear to this day, it’s at that grave that the Allman Brothers wrote and perfected their hit songs to propell them to stardom. Elizabeth Reeds grave is the “alleged” start of it all.

Sadly, on October 29, 1971 Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident crashing into a truck.  He is laid to rest in the same cemetery as Elizabeth Reed.  Today his grave is highly guarded and surrounded with a spiked cast iron fence, covered in axle grease to keep people from jumping the fence.  He returned to the place he forever loved to play in, and shall forever rest in peace in the spot some say the Allman Brothers formed.  If you ever get to go to Macon, visit this famous cemetery and see Duane Allman and Elizabeth Reed, knowing this is where it all started.  Rose Hill Cemetery is free to visit from sunrise to sunset.  I suggest since the cemetery is so large that you bring someone you know that knows the layout, because the streets are VERY narrow and hard to navigate cars through.