Her gravesite is marked by a shallow depression in the grass and nothing else. It was just over a year ago that my wife and I went to Greenmount Cemetery looking for her headstone. Bob Talamante from Durango’s Parks and Recreation Department had to help us find the unmarked grave. There are more than 10,000 gravesites at the cemetery, but no marker for her grave. We left a little surprised and a little depressed.
I included this omission in an article in The Durango Herald commemorating the 100th anniversary of the influenza pandemic of 1918 in Durango – and its impact on our community. I was moved by the story of this little girl who died after a brief illness on her 8th birthday.
Her name was Loisa Bass, and she died Oct. 8, 1918. To die on the anniversary of her birth was tragically ironic. The Durango Evening Herald and Durango Democrat both identified her as the first local death associated with what was commonly called the Spanish flu. In truth, she may not have been the first. There were six other diagnosed cases of the deadly flu in our community, and one pneumonia death a week earlier not attributed to influenza.
The influenza pandemic of 1918-19 was one of the greatest human disasters of all time, with a global death toll ranging from 50 million to 100 million. In Durango, there were more than 200 deaths. Our neighbors to the north had it worse. Silverton lost 246 people, or 10% of its population, to the pandemic.
The two hospitals in town were eventually overwhelmed and the Red Cross opened a temporary hospital on Main Avenue. Local schools were closed, train passengers quarantined in a local hotel and public gatherings prohibited. Because of this last restriction, the Rev. Gunby, pastor of the Methodist church, was the only non-family member at the graveside service.
After the article appeared, Herald readers commented on the lack of a headstone for Loisa. I approached Jeff Hutchinson, director of the Animas Museum, with these concerns and he took it to the board of the La Plata County Historical Society. They immediately responded with a campaign to purchase and install a marker for the little girl. The Loisa Bass Memorial Fund has raised almost $1,000 thanks to the generosity of our community and the leadership of the historical society.
A brief ceremony to mark the grave setting will take place on the 101st anniversary of her death at 3 p.m. Oct. 8 in Greenmount Cemetery. Pastor Jeff Huber, current pastor at the First United Methodist Church, will speak at the memorial.
Guy Walton is a retired nurse and co-author with Barbara Moorehead of “Mercy Hospital of the San Juans.” Reach him at blue52@frontier.net.
