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Extra! Extra!  . . . and, yes, you want to know all about it. It’s soon time — August 1 — for Angels on the Bluff tickets to go on sale.

This Natchez City Cemetery annual fundraiser, now in its 23rd year, has so many EXTRAS to inspire your interest, prompt your anticipation, and surpass your expectations: extraordinary characters portrayed by extraordinary actors in extrasensory surroundings emanating from the hallowed grounds and often legendary lives of the 50,000-plus residing in this historic cemetery established in 1822.

During November’s second weekend, Nov. 7, 8, and 9, its traditional niche on the City of Natchez calendar, AOB will welcome, as it has done year after year, those from surrounding areas and surrounding states, from states across the nation, and from countries beyond our borders. Many of these are loyal followers, repeat patrons who having come once do not want to miss another opportunity for the inspirational and entertaining experiences AOB provides.

The 15 tours on Thursday and the 17 tours on both Friday and Saturday will showcase local talents portraying the following notable cemetery residents, a sampling of the kaleidoscope of cultures, faiths, and varied heritage of those whose myriad tales — the cautionary and the challenging, the celebrated and the solemn, and the stimulating and the disheartening — fascinate with their intriguing details of challenges met, of opportunities seized, and of lives well lived:

• Baker Newton: Born in Arkansas in 1918 as his family’s 12th child, Mr. Newton moved with his family to Ferriday, Louisiana. After graduating from L.S.U. with a master’s degree, he began an illustrious military career, serving as major with a tank destroyer battalion and receiving both a Bronze Star and Silver Star for heroic efforts. His leadership skills were further evident in his career in education, serving as supervisor of Concordia Parish schools until his untimely death at the age of 41.

• Pierre/Peter M. LaPice: Born in Haiti in 1797, Mr. LaPice moved to New Orleans where he served as the youngest volunteer under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. Business interests led him to Natchez where he married and where all six of his children were born. Later, he became successful in the sugar industry in Louisiana, introducing a new variety of cane and an invention to extract more juice and usable pulp. A beautiful monument marks his grave.

• Michael Gleason Ducrow: Born in Ireland in 1844, Mr. Ducrow came to Natchez from Massachusetts and enjoyed careers as a tightrope walker, athletic instructor, coroner, inventor, and decorative painter. His creativity was expressed in his polyorama exhibitions depicting Civil War scenes often with sound effects. He was contracted by St. Mary Cathedral to prepare three altars for the consecration of the church in 1886 and later to repaint the steeple in 1891.

• Jeremiah M. P. Williams: Born enslaved in North Carolina, the Reverend Williams was a Baptist minister and missionary as well as one of the most prominent Black politicians in Adams County during Reconstruction. He was elected delegate to the State Convention in 1869 and later served two terms in the Mississippi State Senate. After retiring from active political life, he focused on his ministry until his death in the “suburbs” of Natchez in 1884.

• Brigadier General Zebulon York: General York was born in the small town of Avon, Maine, made his way south, and eventually graduated from what is now Tulane University Law School. Known for his wit, he became a successful attorney, newspaper editor, and business man in Concordia Parish. Skill as a fearless soldier and later as a leader in flood relief efforts in Louisiana brought him fame. Later, he moved to Natchez as proprietor of the York House, a hotel on Main Street.

• Charles Winthrop Babbitt: Mr. Babbitt was born in Adams County in 1834. A graduate of Harvard’s Engineering School, he first served as a levee engineer for Concordia Parish. After the Civil War, during which he served with the First Corps of Engineers in Virginia, he returned home where his surveying expertise was sought in raising and widening levees and in planning roads, streets, and railroad lines. His hand-drawn maps and field diaries are considered remarkable. He died in 1903, leaving two sons who followed in his footsteps.

• Dortia Wallace: Miss Wallace grew up in Jefferson County, Mississippi, where her grandfather, a Revolutionary War veteran from the Carolinas, settled in 1800. A Claiborne County resident during the Civil War, she became known for her devotion to caring for soldiers wounded at the Battle of Port Gibson. In the 1870s, she moved to Tensas Parish where she worked as a schoolteacher and housekeeper until her death.

Order your AOB tickets from the cemetery website at www.thenatchezcitycemetery.com. In purchasing each $45 ticket, you will indicate both the date and time you are reserving.

Tours leave every 15 minutes by bus from the Natchez Community Center at 215 Franklin Street in downtown Natchez with ample parking nearby. After about an hour and a half, the tour bus returns to the center. Each of the approximately 1½-mile walking tours proceeds mostly along the cemetery’s roadways with some digression across grassy areas.

Arrive for your tour 15 minutes before the departure time shown on your ticket, bring a flashlight, and wear comfortable walking shoes. Also, bring a jacket or coat and plan to layer appropriately given the temperatures at the time; for the breezes up from the river and across the cemetery can be quite brisk.

Co-chairs for Angels on the Bluff 2024 are Meg Hazlip and Phebe Winters, who share their enthusiasm and gratitude in saying, “We are excited to showcase another new set of cemetery residents who contributed to the historic fabric of Natchez. Thanks to the cemetery crew and many dedicated volunteers, these reposing citizens will rise to the occasion at their gravesites to entertain and enlighten guests with their tales.”

Also, one final Angels on the Bluff EXTRA—Be extra vigilant in promptly securing your tickets for this year’s tours: tickets for this event traditionally sell out early. And you’ll want to be among those who participate in this signature event that supports the restoration and preservation of the sacred and storied centuries-old Natchez City Cemetery, a treasured landmark in the oldest town on America’s mighty and majestic lower Mississippi River.

Jean Biglane is a member of the Natchez Cemetery Association Board.