The Friends of Scott Joplin are pleased to invite one and all to the dedication of the monument on the previously unmarked grave of Tom Turpin, the Father of St. Louis Ragtime, to be held Sunday, September 12, at 1 p.m. The ceremony, featuring live ragtime music, will take place in Section 29 of St. Peter's Cemetery, 2101 Lucas and Hunt Road in Normandy.

The long-awaited monument is mahogany granite, will stand 24 inches tall by 24 inches wide atop a 30 by 12 by 6 inch base, and will feature Turpin's photo. Inscribed on the rear of the stone will be the names of the five family members also buried in the grave, including Tom's brother Charles Turpin, the first black to be elected to public office in St. Louis. The monument is being prepared by the Rosebrough Monument Company, a longtime venerable local institution.

We would like to thank all of you who made generous contributions to ensure that this giant of ragtime would be memorialized at his final resting place. In particular, we wish to commend Ann Steele of the Tom Turpin Ragime Festival in Savannah, Georgia (Turpin' s birthplace), and the Kansas City Ragime Revelry. The monument would not exist without commitment from these dedicated groups.