Gypsy Queen’s famous monument deteriorating, and efforts are under way to save it

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The grand monument marks the final resting place of gypsy queen Matilda Joles Stanley.

"Remembering Matilda, Queen of the Gypsies" is set for 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15 at the cemetery located at 118 Woodland Ave., Dayton.

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The evening includes Gypsy culture and heritage, food,  drinks, music by Tiempo Perdido, tarot card readers, fortune tellers and a historic candlelight walk tracing the original steps of the burial of Matilda Stanley.

General admission is $30 and includes a food bowl and two drink tickets. Patron admission is $50 and includes the food and drink tickets, a Stanley Family booklet and a Woodland T-shirt. The $150 VIP ticket includes a future personalized golf cart tour, the benefits included with the patron tickets (food, drink tickets, etc.) and a ceramic Woodland coaster set and the tote bag.

About $10,000 is needed to repair the 20-foot granite column monument featuring an angel on top.

The event’s date marks the 140th anniversary of Matilda’s burial at the historic cemetery.

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Matilda — who was described as a “plain, hardy–looking woman and having a manner indicative of a strong and pronounced character” in published reports — died in Vicksburg, Mississippi in January 1878 from cancer.

Her body was embalmed and was sent back to Dayton, where it was placed in a receiving vault until tribe members could arrive for her funeral — the largest ever held at Woodland.

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More than 20,000 people — a dozen gypsy chiefs and their tribes included — arrived here to pay tribute to Matilda on Sept. 15, 1878, Hoschouer said.

The funeral attracted press coverage from major newspapers, but was brief and lacked the extraordinary rites many expected.

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United Brethren Church of Dayton Rev. Dr. Daniel Berger officiated and the First United Brethren Church quartet choir sang hymns. The queen's casket was transferred from the vault to the family plot that had been purchased so "all the tribesmen and women could be buried when the time came," according to the late Roz Young, a Dayton Daily News columnist.

Hoschouer said Stanley's monument is among the cemetery's most visited site.

"The gypsies have that mysterious mystique to them and people want to know what the gypsy did," she said.

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Matilda’s husband and gypsy king Levi Stanley and her in-laws Owen and Harriet, the prior gypsy king and queen, are among the family members buried at the memorial.