How did Corinne Elliott Lawton of Savannah, GA, die?

Corinne Elliott Lawton drowned in the Wilmington River on January 24, 1877. She remains in the memory of Savannah locals and visitors alike. She is made indelible by the details of her death and her gravesite sculpture at Bonaventure Cemetery.

Corinne was the daughter of a very important man, Alexander Robert Lawton. Lawton was a railroad company president, politician and Confederate Army Brigadier General. Being the daughter of such a high-profile father, Corinne was expected to marry a man of equal social standing. She was scheduled to marry such a man, but was in love with another who was of a lower social level. The day before she was to marry the man she did not love, she threw herself into the river and drowned.