I am an historical artist from Mississippi working mostly in the southern United States. I am new to Find a Grave but have a lifelong interest in history. Named after Andrew Jackson Holley, my grandfather, who in turn was named after Andrew Jackson (my great great grandfather fought under Jackson in Alabama and New Orleans).

Some posts from my Facebook account:

December 11, 2016
What we find at the graveyard by Dr Jack Riley May. I always think of Charles Dickens at Christmas. Was thinking back, not at his Christmas stories , but to that great work, Great Expectations. The homeless boy, Pip, is at the graveyard. No father, mother and five brothers. All dead. No pictures. No way to understand how they looked. He looks at the tombstones and sees this. His father- the letters on the stone give him the thought that he was square, and a stout man with black hair. Well now, his mother in the gravestone a freckled faced, sickly woman. Maybe the mottled stone gave him this. We move on. His brothers- all dead in a row. He saw them, from birth to death, born on their backs with their hands in their pockets. They never removed them in life. I have known a lot of people like this. Want something done? They can't pickup a box, a scrap of paper or a cooking pan. Know anybody like this? Need something done this Christmas! Don't call on so and so he has his hands in his pockets. I am now sure the little boy Pip was right. What do you see in the tombstones.

December 26, 2016
The Land for the Tombstone by Dr Jackson Riley May, historical artist. What about your past family? We do not know a great deal about the May family. But we do know this. In the photo that accompanies this post my son Tim is kneeling behind George Riley May's tombstone, his great granddaddy. This is all that is left of 480 acres of some of the best land in the edge of Alabama, about one and a half miles from Steens, Mississippi our home area. Daddy got his part of the money for selling off the land back in the 1930's and bought this stone. So, all our past is born upon this one small headstone. The large plantation is no longer in May hands. So it goes. Oh well, glad for the stone-ha!

February 15, 2017
Be Happy! By Dr Jackson Riley May, historical artist. Remember the talking fish? "Don't worry, be happy!" Ha! One early writer said that in order to be happy you would need to be from an outstanding city. Well, that would do me in, a Mississippi country boy like me is doomed from the start!

I am an historical artist from Mississippi working mostly in the southern United States. I am new to Find a Grave but have a lifelong interest in history. Named after Andrew Jackson Holley, my grandfather, who in turn was named after Andrew Jackson (my great great grandfather fought under Jackson in Alabama and New Orleans).

Some posts from my Facebook account:

December 11, 2016
What we find at the graveyard by Dr Jack Riley May. I always think of Charles Dickens at Christmas. Was thinking back, not at his Christmas stories , but to that great work, Great Expectations. The homeless boy, Pip, is at the graveyard. No father, mother and five brothers. All dead. No pictures. No way to understand how they looked. He looks at the tombstones and sees this. His father- the letters on the stone give him the thought that he was square, and a stout man with black hair. Well now, his mother in the gravestone a freckled faced, sickly woman. Maybe the mottled stone gave him this. We move on. His brothers- all dead in a row. He saw them, from birth to death, born on their backs with their hands in their pockets. They never removed them in life. I have known a lot of people like this. Want something done? They can't pickup a box, a scrap of paper or a cooking pan. Know anybody like this? Need something done this Christmas! Don't call on so and so he has his hands in his pockets. I am now sure the little boy Pip was right. What do you see in the tombstones.

December 26, 2016
The Land for the Tombstone by Dr Jackson Riley May, historical artist. What about your past family? We do not know a great deal about the May family. But we do know this. In the photo that accompanies this post my son Tim is kneeling behind George Riley May's tombstone, his great granddaddy. This is all that is left of 480 acres of some of the best land in the edge of Alabama, about one and a half miles from Steens, Mississippi our home area. Daddy got his part of the money for selling off the land back in the 1930's and bought this stone. So, all our past is born upon this one small headstone. The large plantation is no longer in May hands. So it goes. Oh well, glad for the stone-ha!

February 15, 2017
Be Happy! By Dr Jackson Riley May, historical artist. Remember the talking fish? "Don't worry, be happy!" Ha! One early writer said that in order to be happy you would need to be from an outstanding city. Well, that would do me in, a Mississippi country boy like me is doomed from the start!