Today he rests peacefully beneath shade trees, the wind moving softly through the cemetery.
But in 1887, Charles McDonald Puckette's life was anything but peaceful. The city around him waited anxiously, watching as a bitter feud between newspaper editors escalated towards violence.
Meet the man who nearly sparked a duel in downtown Shreveport.
The Grave
Charles McDonald Puckette rests today in Greenwood Cemetery, Shreveport, Louisiana; safe from the turmoil that once surrounded his name. Photo courtesy of Tarah Thomas
The Man
Newspaper editor, Charles McDonald Puckette, whose words and rivalries placed him at the center of a tense public rivalry in 1880s Shreveport, La. Courtesy of Ancestry.com user cpuckette4
The World Around Him
Puckette's family lived alongside the public drama that unfolded in the newspapers and streets of the city. Pictured above is Puckette's wife, Charlotte Elliott Puckette (standing). Courtesy of Ancestry.com user cpuckette4
The Rising Conflict
Reports from the New Orleans Times-Democrat on October 26, 1887, describe growing tensions between rival editors and rumors of a duel that had the entire city on edge. Courtesy of Newspapers.com and the Times-Democrat
What Remains
In the city death registry, Charles McDonald Puckette appears not as a headline, but as one single handwritten line among hundreds. A once public-life ,now just a quiet line in a ledger. Courtesy of Shreve Memorial Library, researched by Tarah Thomas
In the end, the arguments faded, the headlines disappeared, and only a name on a headstone remained, waiting for someone to listen to the story it still holds.
To listen to the story of Charles McDonald Puckette, download Southern Souls: Stories from the Stones anywhere you listen to podcasts.
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