Councilman in La. Pushes Ban on Colorful Tombs

HOUMA, La. (AP) — It isn't the statues, the stained glass or even the pillows on the graves at Southdown Cemetery that bother Terrebonne Councilman Alvin Tillman — it's the colors on the tombs.

He does not like the red one, the yellow one, the soft dove gray or any of the shades of blue that about a dozen of the tombs have been painted.

He says other people have complained about it too, and he doesn't want the place to "look like Mardi Gras." In fact, he wants it to be illegal to paint a tomb anything but white.

Under an ordinance he has proposed, violations would be a misdemeanor.

But a historic preservationist says coloring the tombs is a local tradition, and not until recent years have they typically been painted white.