WHO Lies Beneath: The Asylum WOUB Public Media

In this final episode of “WHO Lies Beneath: The Asylum” Season 1, Cheri Russo and Doug McCabe look ahead to the stories they hope to tell in Season 2. They answer listener questions and read messages from listeners about their relatives who are buried in the Athens Asylum cemeteries. They also talk about two other institutions with unmarked graves that they plan to learn about and then tell the stories of people buried there. Historian Paul LaRue shares his knowledge on the old Feeble Minded Institute in Orient, Ohio and the numbered tombstones located there. They also learn about the former Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia. If you have any information you want to share with us, you can email us at wholiesbeneath@woub.org.

With the help of voice-actor Karen Chan, Alice Mayle tells her life story. Mayle was buried in the Asylum cemeteries in 1929. Alice’s committal records are missing from the archives, but one of her descendants was able to fill in the pieces of Alice’s life. It’s a story of marriage, adultery and contracting a sexually transmitted disease, which eventually led to her time at the asylum. We hear from Alice’s great-grandson Richard Davis and talk with Jackie Wolf, who is a professor of the history of medicine at Ohio University and specializes in the history of women’s health and children’s health, along with the history of public health, and the history of biomedical ethics. We’d love to hear from you and see if the work done in Athens might lead you to some answers about one of your relatives. Email us at wholiesbeneath@woub.org.

With the help of voice-actors Tom Hodson, Chad Kopenski and Lynn Shaw - John T. O’Donnell, James Hardy and Arthur D. James tell their own life stories. The three men had different life experiences, some criminal in nature, but all experienced violence and trauma in their lives before they were admitted to the asylum. We talk with Paul LaRue, a retired social studies teacher who has conducted research projects involving veterans and unmarked graves and Lisa Skeens, who is an associate professor of social work at Ohio University and is a therapist. Her specialty areas include anxiety disorders, grief and PTSD. We’d love to hear from you and see if the work done in Athens might lead you to some answers about one of your relatives. Email us at wholiesbeneath@woub.org.

With the help of voice-actors Lou Horvath, Jessica Makosky and Liz Shaw - Robert Barlow, Alexandra Nation and Anna McKee tell their own life stories. They talk about the mysteries surrounding how they ended up at the old Athens Lunatic Asylum and in Barlow’s case, the mystery of what happened to his body after he died. He’s not buried in the Asylum cemeteries. We’d love to hear from you and see if the work done in Athens might lead you to some answers about one of your relatives. Email us at wholiesbeneath@woub.org.

PROGRAM NOTE: Portions of this program were recorded in 2021, prior to the most recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on Roe vs. Wade.

With the help of voice-actors Roger Jones and Dan Hauser, Eli Stevens and Israel Johnson tell their own life stories and how the two Civil War veterans, one who fought for the Confederacy and the other who was an African American soldier who fought with the Union, ended up buried right next to each other under numbered tombstones on the grounds of the old Athens Lunatic Asylum.

Have a story about a relative who you believe may be buried under a numbered tombstone at an institutional cemetery anywhere in the country? We’d love to hear from you and see if the work done in Athens might lead you to some answers. Email us at wholiesbeneath@woub.org.

With the help of voice-actor Chad Kopenski, Adam Kern tells his own story as a German immigrant who came to America and then fought in the Civil War. He became a patient at the old Athens Lunatic Asylum in 1874. Kern was 61 years old when he died and was buried under grave 251. We will hear from Kern’s descendants who found closure after tracking down a missing piece of their family line and worked to get a named marker installed at Kern’s gravesite. Cheri Russo and Doug McCabe will also talk with Ohio University Associate Professor of Social Work Lisa Skeens who is a therapist that specializes in anxiety disorders, grief and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is believed to be the reason Kern was institutionalized. Have a story about a relative who you believe may be buried under a numbered tombstone at an institutional cemetery anywhere in the country? We’d love to hear from you and see if the work done in Athens might lead you to some answers. Email us at wholiesbeneath@woub.org.