A cult following for Bibb County’s ghostly celebrities

It has been 26 years, but Mary Lee Irby figures the ghosts haven’t gone anywhere.

They climb the staircase at the Big House and roam the floors at Lawrence Mayer Florist. They have never stopped sweeping across the stages at the Douglass Theatre, Grand Opera House and City
Auditorium.

Uncle Pliny still loiters on the corner of Georgia Avenue and Nesbitt Place. At night, the ghost soldier keeps watch in the tower at Fort Hawkins. And the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds will always be an old folks home for goblins.

No, Macon’s most famous ghosts have not retired to the coast or retreated to the cooler climes in the mountains. They have not moved away from Bibb County because of property taxes (Not all of them, anyway).

Folks still share their ghost stories with Irby. They parcel spooky tales, scary sightings and details about things that go bump in the night. Some of their stories have been passed down for generations, embellished and embraced by the wider world.

Irby published a 116-page book called “Ghosts of Macon” in October 1998, just in time for Halloween and ahead of the holiday season. She sold a remarkable 5,000 copies.

It had a cult following, not to mention an occult following.

The popularity of the book expanded to ghost tours, originating at the Cannonball House, where she was executive director. She created a self-guided tour, complete with a brochure and cassette tape (Yep, a cassette tape. That’s how long ago it was).

Irby pressed the pause button on her ghoul rush in 2003 when her daughter, Morgan, was born – appropriately enough – on
Halloween.

In recent years, her health has slowed her down. She now works in administration at PruittHealth Hospice.

Sometimes, though, she wonders if she might have enough chapters left in her pen for “Ghosts of Macon: Volume II.” Or if she still has enough spark to revise the original book, which is now out of print, with life updates on all those spirits. Or when she might  find the time, energy and resources to dust off the three chapters for a book she started on the resident ghosts of the Golden Isles.

One thing is for certain. Irby will never run out of apparitions.

Her adventure began after she graduated from Crisp County High School in Cordele, studied communications and marketing at Valdosta State and moved to Macon to start working for the Cherry Blossom Festival in 1992.

She fell in love with the city’s rich history and architectural wonders. She began doing research with the help of Muriel   Jackson, now the head genealogical and historical librarian at the Washington Memorial Library.

“I kept saying someone ought to write a book and combine it with ghost stories,’’ she said. 

“Why don’t you do it?’’ a friend suggested.

 “I think I will,’’ she said.  

She selected 10 local haunts and interviewed people who worked and lived there. Eight buildings were open to the public. Two were private residences.

“When I asked if they had any ghost stories, more often than not they did,’ she said.

It was gratifying to both creep out people and instill an appreciation for history.  

 “Those are the things I would get excited about,’’ she said. “When you weave it in, they’re learning history at the same time they’re getting the thrill from the ghost story.’’ 

She called writing the book “a great chapter in my life.’’ She is not sure if she is ready to close it forever.

After all, people still ask if she believes in ghosts. And she admits to having a couple of close encounters of the eerie kind. 

Once was at the Grand Opera House, but she shrugged it off. “Maybe it was my sensitivity,’’ she said. Of course,  it could have been the night watchman from the 1940s who thought the light from his flashlight was guiding him down the aisle … only to discover it was not.

Another time, in the heat of summer, her hair stood up on the back of her neck on the front porch at the Bennett House. “It was freezing cold,’’ she said. 

It wasn’t a draft from the air conditioning. Perhaps it was Uncle Pliny – or one of his fans.

Irby welcomes ghost stories from those who want to share them at her email … ghostsofmacon@gmail.com

It won’t be necessary to resuscitate them.

Ghosts never die. We won’t let them.