Presented by Bettye Lessley:
Mr. Falconi was born in Italy in 1856, and came to New York at the age of fifteen, making his home there for thirty years. From there he moved to Gantts Quarry, where he was employed by The Alabama Marble Company. Mr. Falconi converted the first finished product from there and lived to see this beautiful white marble shipped to virtually every state in the union, and into several foreign countries.
This beautiful, white, marble angel, standing watch over the graves of Edward J. Smith and his wife, Lamitis Gibson Smith, was carved by Mr. Cesare Pillade Falconi.In 1910 he moved to Sylacauga and operated the Sylacauga Marble Company for many years. His place of business was located on west Third Street just off Norton Avenue, and his home was nearby. His ad in The Sylacauga News on March 1, 1917, declared: “Sylacauga has one industry in particular destined to grow into a large establishment. That is the Sylacauga Marble Company, Mr. C. P. Falconi, proprietor, manufacturer of monuments, statuary and all kinds of similar marble works. By the location so near the Alabama Marble Quarry this Company has been able to make arrangements to use this world famed marble the lasting beauty of which has won it a place at the top of the Marble Industry. It is used exclusively in all the products of the Sylacauga Marble Company and to appreciate its advantages one has but to visit a cemetery where this marble and other marble stands side by side. The contrast is most striking. The Alabama Marble retains its beauty throughout weather exposure where other marbles lose their attractiveness.”
Mr. Falconi died at his home on Sunday, October 6, 1935, after an illness of several weeks. He was seventy-nine years old and was buried in The Marble City Cemetery.
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