William Potes Tombstone Goes Home

The tombstone of Oklahoma pioneer William Potes spent decades in places it didn't belong.

Originally stolen from a cemetery in rural Murray County, it was discovered in an abandoned Texas college dormitory in 1982 and spent the last 26 years in the back yard of amateur genealogists Mike and Donna Ballard of Krugerville, Texas.

Donna Ballard said her research indicated the tombstone went missing around 1950. A security guard at Texas Woman's University in Denton discovered it when some old dorms were being razed to build new ones. He took it to the Ballards in
1982 and asked them to help solve the mystery.

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