Was Lizzie Borden Afraid She Wouldn’t Be Allowed Burial in Oak Grove Cemetery?

Image by Faye Musselman, Tattered Fabric

Something to ponder: In Lizzie’s Will, Item 6 (below) she uses the phrase …”to give her the privilege, so far as I have the same…..” regarding Oak Grove Cemetery. Could it be Lizzie was concerned her notoriety might impede or deny her this final resting place? For a woman who, in her younger days, felt so entitled, why would she sound doubtful about this when writing her Will a year and a half before her death? Did she include this bequeath to her cousin, Grace, to add leverage because Grace had status as the wife of Louis McHenry Howe? Louis was the personal secretary to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had been Asst. Secretary to the Navy in 1920. He was “connected”. It just strikes me as quite odd the phrasing Lizzie uses here. “….so far as I have the same…”

6. To my cousin, Mrs. Grace H. Howe, my diamond and amethyst ring and I direct that she shall have second choice of my rugs, books, china, pictures and furniture, and I also give to her the privilege, so far as I have the same, to use the Oak Grove Cemetery lot for burial purposes. I also give and devise to her one-half of my share in the A. J. Borden Building in said Fall River, to her, her heirs, executors, administrators and assigns forever.”