Checking RoadsideAmerica.com for oddities I might find while driving across Iowa, I noticed there was an interesting monument in Iowa City’s, Oakland Cemetery. As I turned off the main street, I saw a sign stating the area is a historical district. There were several large beautiful Victorian homes and this rustic brick street surface.
The cemetery itself was unimpressive, with very few statues or obelisk type markers.
The Black Angle was erected in 1912 by Teresa Dolezal Feldevert.
She was a
physician from Strmilov, Bohemia. Her son, Eddie, died from meningitis and was buried in Oakland Cemetery with a tree stump monument. She moved to Oregon and married Nicholas Feldevert who died tragically in 1911.
Teresa returned to Iowa City and hired Mario Korbel, a Bohemain artist, to create The Angel to shelter the
ashes of her husband and grave of her son.
In 1924, her ashes would also be placed beneath The Angel.
Supposedly the glorious bronze angel strangely began to turn black and the legends and ghost stories began.
Unfortunately her fingers have been vandalized so her eight foot form is lacking it’s total grace...but she’s
still impressive.
I only found one other statue.
Oakland is boarded by St. Joseph Cemetery, a angle-less Catholic cemetery.
View more of my cemetery art: EnfocusGallery.com
