The Dart: Jerry Iles monument finally completed at City Cemetery

Published 12:15 am Monday, May 7, 2012

NATCHEZ — Figuring out how to memorialize a loved one isn’t an easy task.

When The Dart found Betty Iles Friday on Old Pond Road, she was getting ready to check on the final placement of a monument for her husband, Dr. Jerry Iles, which had been installed that week.

Dr. Iles died Sept. 1, 2010, but due to a series of unforeseeable events, the family wasn’t able to immediately place a monument for him in the Natchez City Cemetery, Betty said.

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“You wouldn’t think it takes you that long to think of what you want to put on it, but it does,” she said.

“When you lose your life partner, you are sort of blindsided, and it takes you a little while to adjust.”

The family was finally able to sit down and discuss what they wanted on the monument, and in February they ordered a three-stone, black granite marker that has a tall center slab with the Iles family name on it, the names of Jerry and Betty’s sons — Greg and Geoff — and their grandchildren’s names engraved in it. On the left is a shorter stone with Betty’s name and birth date on it.

On the right is Dr. Iles’ stone, which, on the front, carries the usual memorial information — his dates of birth and death — and a quote from Shakespeare, “He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.”

“We put (the Shakespeare quote) on it because he always said to just read a little Shakespeare over him and let it be,” Betty said.

On the back of Dr. Iles stone is another set of biographical information, the dates of his service in the military and the dates he practiced medicine in Natchez.

Above the dates for his time in the military was an etched American flag.

“We put the flag on there because he was very patriotic,” Betty said.

The dates for Dr. Iles’ medical practice, 1963 – 2010, have a medial caduceus above them.

“You can see that he practiced until the end of his life,” Betty said. “He never wanted to give it up, and he practiced right up until he went to the hospital the last time.”

Though it took a while to get it, Betty said she thought the monument was a fitting one.

“I was worried it might seem ostentatious, but I think it turned out nice,” she said.