FLOATING ISLAND AND A TALE OF LOST LOVE

Lain to rest in Mobile’s Magnolia Cemetery was a long forgotten colorful character named Mary Eoline Eilands (1854-1937). She is now known as Floating Island, one of the many ghostly apparitions to haunt the streets of Downtown Mobile.   I did some “grave-digging” on her after my mother showed me an old newspaper article in the Mobile Press Register that she had kept. It contained a poem about Miss Eilands and her long lost love called Floating Island. Being a real sucker for a mystery (and a love story), I wanted to know more about her. I went to talk to Ms. Janet Savage, Executive Director of The Friends of Magnolia Cemetery.  She directed me to burial site of Miss Eilands and her family, where I went to take photos of her grave. It was so surreal to finally visit the burial plot of this fabled woman from Mobile’s past.

The Mobilians called her Floating Island because of her last name and the long black flowing silk skirts that she wore when she went strolling in Downtown. Her unusual gait gave the appearance that she floated along the street. Rumor has it that when Miss Eilands was a young lady, she accepted a marriage proposal from a man who was a Confederate veteran.   He had promised to marry her when he returned from the sea.  So, everyday until the day she died at the age of 83, she walked from her old neglected house at 655 St. Emanuel Street to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for morning mass and then to the docks on the Mobile River looking for her lost lover to return from the sea.  Miss Eilands did not like to speak to people on her walk. She never updated her clothes when the fashion trends for women were shorter dresses and hair.  Miss Eilands continued to wear her 19^th century attire and kept her waist-length hair with a small hat on her head tied by a ribbon. This outdated look drew attention from the other Mobilians in the town. 

I came across an article by Tom McGehee in the Mobile Bay Magazine where he wrote, “The romanticized tale of “Floating Island” became so popular that it caught the attention of South Carolina writer Julia Peterkin, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929”.  McGehee said that a year later, Ms. Peterkin arrived in the Port City to uncover the story behind this legendary character and asked for the help of Mobile Press-Register reporter, Frances Durham.  The two reporters visited Miss Eilands’ crumbling house but were unable to go inside since it was in such bad condition, so they conducted the interview outside.  The women could hear several dogs and cats coming from inside her home.  It was said at one time that she took care of about 24 pets.  Miss Eilands also told the ladies that she never cuts her hair because “her Savior nor his holy mother” had theirs cut.  

Later, after that visit, an article in the Press was released describing her as “one of the most picturesque figures”, obviously referring to her younger years.  Then went on to describe her home as “gradually falling apart with sagging sills and rain pouring through the roof” and called her “a little old, wrinkled woman.”  Furthermore, McGehee went on to say that the article in the Press did not explain why Miss Eilands stood at the edge of the river each day or much of her past life.  Well, this unflattering and incomplete article really made Miss Eilands livid.  She stormed into the Press office on St. Michael Street and repeatedly slammed her parasol on the counter while using derogatory words that would make a sailor blush. She demanded to see Ms. Durham, who wrote the unflattering story.  The Press employees spirited the cowardly Ms. Durham out of a second story window and across the roof to another building to escape Miss Eilands’ fury.  I can only imagine how humiliating it must have been for poor Miss Eilands to have the townsfolk read such a mean spirited editorial about her. Floating Island’s life was filled with such heartbreak, that such disrespect obviously sent her over the emotional cliff.

Sadly, Mary Eoline Eilands passed away in her home on September 24, 1937. An article about her death was listed in the Mobile Press-Register.  They stated that she was a “symbol of faithfulness.”  The words on her cement slab were faded by weather and time.  But I hope her story will live a little bit longer. When walking downtown in the streets of Mobile, keep a lookout for a ghostly lady, wearing a long black skirt. If she appears to be floating, you may have just seen the ghost of Miss Mary Eoline Eilands taking her daily walk to go look for her love down by the river.

Miss Eilands is buried between her parents in the Eilands family plot.  I believe if there is a statue to be put at the foot of Government Street or Cooper Riverside Park in Mobile, then it should be one of Floating Island as a beautiful young woman looking forever at the sea for the return of the man she loved.  She was one of the most unique Mobilians of our past.

Poem about Floating Island by Robert J. Carley.

I remember her as a boy,

She seemed so shy and coy.

Dressed in hoop skirt and ruffled blouse,

Everyone’s thoughts she did arouse.

A woman of quiet appeal,

She strolled the streets of old Mobile.

Called by many Floating Island,

This petit lady, Mary Eiland.

This lovely, lonely maiden

Her heart so heavily laden,

Waited for her lover to return

For him she did yearn.

Ceaseless in her daily hunt

She trudged along the waterfront,

Always hoping to see

Her lover return from the sea.

It was never said or known

Whether the sea claimed him for her own,

Or to some other maiden he did return,

But her love he did spurn.

She must have wondered as she’d pray

Did God really hear her say,

Please bring back my lover to me,

Bring him back from the sea.

Gliding there by the pier

Still looking for the one she held so dear.

Her gait, more a float than a walk,

Always the town news and talk.

This lonely lady growing old

Such a sad and trusting soul,

Must have felt all alone

With no love of her own.

Faithful to God at daily Mass,

To a love so steadfast.

Peace came to her at last,

Still longing for her lover of the past.

Sources

Thomason, Michael. “What’s in a nickname?”  Mobile Bay Magazine. 4 January 2012.

McGehee, Tom.  “Ask McGehee Over the Years” Mobile Bay Magazine. 19 April 2021.

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