Shhh . . . Do you hear someone weeping?

SPANISH FORK — The history of the weeping lady tombstone in Spanish Fork City Cemetery is as curious as the legend that surrounds it.

Eternally carved in stone, the weeping lady has been kneeling over the grave site of Laura Daniels Ferreday of Payson since Ferreday died in 1929. One hand of the weeping lady presses against a wall, her face buried in her other arm.

Ferreday's husband, Horace, was laid to rest beside her in 1972.

According to a decades-old legend, if you walk around the city cemetery with your eyes closed, you can hear the statue weep. Connie Swain remembers other children telling her the legend of the prominent tombstone when she was a child, but, like many other residents, she doesn't know much about it.

Chance Williams, who lives in nearby Woodland Hills, says he's been told by local teenagers that the legend of the weeping lady still lives.

Williams and his family have visited the grave site many times after Williams was struck by its beauty. He was so intrigued that he started researching its legend and history.

"It's just breathtaking," he said.

Indeed, while many residents are familiar with the statue and the legend that has survived the decades, the tombstone's history is more of a mystery.

"Everyone knows about the weeping lady in the Spanish Fork Cemetery, but no one has any details on her," Williams said. "I was shocked the 'old-timers' of the city would know nothing of her history, though they all know of the weeping lady in the cemetery."

Tim Moran, 87, remembers the family when he was growing up in Spanish Fork. He went to school with the Ferreday children. Horace Ferreday was a well-known plumber in Spanish Fork in the 1920s, Moran recalled.

In 1929 Laura Ferreday, then 32, died in Provo of an infectious tumor, according to city records. "I was in the sixth grade (when she died)," Moran said.

Her grieving husband had the statue erected in remembrance, his feelings lovingly etched beneath the weeping lady:

Warm summer sun shine kindly here

Gentle breeze blow softly here

Mother earth above lie light, lie light

Goodnight sweetheart, goodnight.