THE GHOSTS OF SPARKMAN-HILLCREST

FAMED NAMES WHO MADE THEIR FINAL RESTING PLACE IN PRESTON HOLLOW

Our neighborhood is studded with celebrities, from political powerhouses to high-profile athletes to reality television stars. But some of Preston Hollow’s most famous residents aren’t living alongside us, but 6-feet underground at Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery.

With graves dating back to the 1850s, it is one of the oldest cemeteries in Dallas, which in 1893 became the George W. Loudermilk Undertaking Company. That same year, Will R. Sparkman got his start in the undertaking business a few states away in Jackson, Tenn. It would be 24 years before Sparkman relocated to Dallas, with plans to purchase Loudermilk.

Sparkman relocated the business to one of Dallas’ most well-known properties, the Belo mansion on Ross Avenue, in 1926. But it was 1934 when the Sparkman name gained fame, and notoriety, across the city.

When legendary Dallas criminal Clyde Barrow was on the run from the law, his father knew it was only a matter of time before he was caught and killed. According to the 2011 obituary of Bill Sparkman, grandson of Will Sparkman, the Barrow patriarch asked the family to handle the bank robber’s funeral, whenever it should occur. After Clyde Barrow died in a shootout with police, the Sparkmans sent a hearse to pick up his bullet-riddled body in Louisiana. Thousands came to see the criminal’s corpse in an event covered around the nation.

While Barrow’s body was laid to rest at Western Heights Cemetery on Fort Worth Avenue, many other famous names can be found among the tombs of Sparkman-Hillcrest on Northwest Highway.

MICKEY MANTLE

This Triple Crown winner needs no introduction as one of the most decorated players in baseball history, who still holds the record for the most home runs (18) hit in a World Series. Considered the greatest switch-hitter of all times,

Most of his time in Dallas was spent between the greens and the bar at the exclusive Preston Trail Golf Course just north of our neighborhood. His struggle became public during an interview with sportscaster and friend Bob Costas. It was a disease he spread to his four sons, who each fought their own battle with addiction.

Mantle was born in 1931 and was a highlight of the New York Yankees roster from 1951-68. The next year, the team retired his jersey, No. 7, placing him alongside greats like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. By 1974, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

But once his ball career dried up, Mantle fell on shaky times, fighting a losing a battle with alcoholism.

Although a successful stint at the Betty Ford clinic in 1994 left his mind clear, his body was ravaged by years of drinking. The next year, he died at Baylor University Medical Center after a quick but vicious bout of liver cancer.

More than 1,000 people crammed into Lovers Lane United Methodist Church, selected not because Mantle practiced his faith there, but because it could hold the overwhelming crowd expected for his final goodbye on Aug. 15, 1995.