What Do Hair Wreaths Have To Do With The James Brothers and Independence?

Frank and Jesse James with their formidable mother Zerelda

This past month marked the 2nd performative adventure filming at the sites where my notorious ancestors outlawed. For those newbie readers, Frank and Jesse James were 1st cousins of my great great grandmother's 2nd husband. This journey included site visits to Western Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota.

My first stop was Independence, Missouri, where Frank is buried.

Frank and his wife Ann's tombstone

Frank in his later years

Independence is also the home of Leila's Hair Museum. That might sound a bit weird and creepy to some of you, but I wasn't about to miss a chance to see over 600 hair wreaths and jewelry. Hair wreaths flourished during the Victorian era, but the tradition of keeping a lock of hair from loved ones dates back many centuries. Leila rediscovered this lost art and is now teaching the art of hair wreaths in workshops and published a book. I would love to learn, but fear my tiny motor skills do not have the patience for such intricate work.

Often times, the wreaths had notes inside indicating whose hair
was woven together. Here the tag is actual written in hair. 

This wreath had a special shadow box. A funeral home
lined it with fabric to resemble a coffin.

It was difficult to get good pics. The museum didn't allow
any photos inside and the lobby area had too much reflective
glare from the windows and lights. 

You might be wondering what in the world this has to do with my James adventure. If you read last summer's blog entries, you know that I leave a lock of my hair after filming at each site. As a memento of my DNA lineage. Although a hair wreath would be way cooler. However, if I spent that much time making one, I wouldn't want to leave it somewhere.

It was gay pride week during the time I visited and there was a lot of press about whether the rainbow flag should be hung. City council voted no on hanging the flags on city buildings. However the mayor  showed her support by hanging the flag on her office door. A part-time custodian made news when he blasted the mayor saying that if she could hang the rainbow flag, he should be able to hang the confederate flag. He also said some other nasty stuff that I won't repeat, but you can read the article here.

It's darkly ironic that Independence is not true to its name. Coincidentally or not, it also happens to be the meth capital of the country. Missouri still ranks #1 in meth labs per capita. 27.6 meth labs per 100K people.