Dead Man’s Curve is a name that will leave most terror-stricken. However, when you couple the name with a cemetery, it subtly alters the ambiance. One place in Manning, South Carolina, is reportedly haunted by the ghost of a father who is said to wait in the afterlife for the driver who ran over his son many years before at this location.
The Manning Cemetery is reportedly the site of the haunting. According to Tally Johnson in Ghosts of the Pee Dee, he ventured here long ago when writing this book. The father appears on the roadside when the moon is right, waiting for the driver to return, leaning forward in a rocking chair as you drive past, and then vanishes into thin air. The more popular nights to see the apparition are said to be Prom night, Halloween, and the night of Manning High School’s Homecoming.
The story appears on many online sites. However, we wanted to delve deeper into the story at The Lantern and discovered that a Dead Man’s Curve once existed, approximately 18 miles away in Sumter, near Enon Baptist Church. It is called the Dead Man’s Curve Cemetery, and some of the stones were moved to the Manning Cemetery when the curve was taken out of the road.
Is the latter the site of the tragic accident? Is the father still keeping watch in the afterlife from the Manning Cemetery, waiting for the driver to return?
Written By: John G. Clark Jr.
(Sources) Ghosts of the Pee Dee. Tally Johnson. Pages 32, 33, 34.
