The Weeping Woman is a highly frequented, magical statue in the Jackson plot of Riverview Cemetery. It is a stone depiction of a crying woman kneeling at an altar, loosely grasping a scroll that reads, “IN THE SILENCE AND TO THEE” paired with the surname Jackson; it is a memorial to Lily Jackson, a prominent Parkersburg resident. Gifts often rest atop it from visitors hoping to experience the paranormal.

Lily was an artist and arts organizer born in Parkersburg to the prominent Jackson family. She wrote poetry (most notably “From Her to You”), sculpted, and painted pictures of animals—especially her pet dogs—and floral arrangements; she was an avid supporter of the arts and remembered for her kindness and eccentricity. She died on December 9, 1928 of a diabetic coma at the age of 80 and was buried in 1929 under a shroud she made herself.

The Weeping Woman Statue is believed by most to be a paranormal entity that mourns the lost souls of Civil War soldiers—usually described as a penumbra or…