Saturday for me was a complete day of cemeteries. It began with a trip to Furneaux Cemetery in North Carrollton, to reconnect with some old friends and to perform some maintenance upon the grave of a beloved friend from our high school years, by the name of William David Smith. But he was known to everyone as David Smith.
Please know that I cannot explain the history of Dallas without also explaining my journey through it. This blog is my way of telling the story of Dallas as it unveiled itself to me.
David’s heart, wit and charm left an indelible mark on each of us. He was effervescent, innocent and such a loving person that people couldn’t help but love him back.
To this day, I can still hear his voice in my head. It doesn’t tell me to burn things, but to let my light shine; and to allow others to bask in its glow.
David’s mortal life ended way too soon.
It was the night of the World Premier of his movie at the prestigious Lincoln Center in NYC. Lincoln Center serves as the home to the Julliard School of Dance amongst many other things. Having a movie Premier at Lincoln Center simply says, you have made it!
While celebrating at the after party, David ingested some drugs that were too much for his body to handle and he slipped away from this mortal life. the joyous event turned to shock and dismay. in 1996 there weren’t the mass channels for social media that help maintain relationships. Despite your best efforts, you simply lost track of others as you each pursued the next steps in your lives.
David didn’t attend my high school. Instead, I met him at a church youth group that I was deeply involved in during my Senior Year. It was a vibrant group that was full of love and hope. It was also one of the first places that I ever felt welcomed, no matter what kind of geeky, love starved, insecure young man you were.
Flash forward to 2025, and David’s name came up in a conversation with one of the few friends I’d managed to re-establish a relationship with. He knew David much better than I as they attended RL Turner high school together.
With my penchant for forensic research and his recollections and connections we were finally able to piece together enough of his life and to finally locate his grave. The biggest shock to us was that David wasn’t his first name. He wasn’t buried in Dallas County, as we had expected. His family lived in southern Farmer’s Branch, near LBJ.
Once we were able to locate his grave, we decided to take a trip out to see him. What we found was a granite marker that was deeply discolored from its placement under a live oak tree. We all want a shady final resting place, but lacking sun exposure mildew and grime had crept into the rough sections of the granite (called flamed granite). So, the interior of his headstone had abundant mildew on it.
I did some research and found a bio-degradable compound that is the only headstone cleaner approved by the National Park System, who manages the Veterans Cemeteries throughout the country. (https://d2bio.com).
We conducted two tests using this product, the first on David’s headstone and the next on his mother’s stone just to the right of his.
With David’s we sprayed, scrubbed and repeated about 5 times, then rinsed with water.
With his mother’s we sprayed and waited about 20 minutes. Then did a light scrub and rinsed with water. Hers actually came out better, so this is one of those times when patience works better than elbow grease.
