Folk Figure. His bizarre story was immortalized in a song by Don McLean. McCrew was a one-legged African-American hobo who died in Marlin, Texas, after falling off a moving train. No one came to claim him, and after being heavily embalmed by a local mortician, his remains were acquired by a traveling carnival. For over 50 years McCrew's mummified body toured the country as "The Amazing Petrified Man", dressed in a tuxedo and seated in a wheelchair. The carnival company closed in the late 1960s and McCrew ended up in a Dallas warehouse, where he was discovered by widow Elgie Pace. Pace felt that he deserved a proper burial and, unable to afford this herself, stored him in her basement. In 1973 a local undertaker finally heard the story and offered to bury him for free. His grave was unmarked until Don McLean's song "The Legend of Andrew McGrew" (1974) was played on a Chicago radio station; it generated enough interest for others to come forward and pay for a marker. It reads, "Born 1867, Died 1913, Buried 1973".
Folk Figure. His bizarre story was immortalized in a song by Don McLean. McCrew was a one-legged African-American hobo who died in Marlin, Texas, after falling off a moving train. No one came to claim him, and after being heavily embalmed by a local mortician, his remains were acquired by a traveling carnival. For over 50 years McCrew's mummified body toured the country as "The Amazing Petrified Man", dressed in a tuxedo and seated in a wheelchair. The carnival company closed in the late 1960s and McCrew ended up in a Dallas warehouse, where he was discovered by widow Elgie Pace. Pace felt that he deserved a proper burial and, unable to afford this herself, stored him in her basement. In 1973 a local undertaker finally heard the story and offered to bury him for free. His grave was unmarked until Don McLean's song "The Legend of Andrew McGrew" (1974) was played on a Chicago radio station; it generated enough interest for others to come forward and pay for a marker. It reads, "Born 1867, Died 1913, Buried 1973".
Bio by: Brent Priddy
Advertisement
See more McCrew memorials in:
Records on Ancestry
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
