Oscar

Greensboro’s Most Famous Unknown Man

Murphy's Gifts and More

One hot August day in 1937, a vagrant got off the train in Greensboro and set out on foot to Madison.  He was discovered collapsed on Hwy 12—Madison Road in Greensboro.  A few days later, he died . . . unidentified.  He was taken to The Big Store and embalmed by Mr. W. H. McCommons, Coroner, who named him Oscar.

Scores of people who had missing relatives came and looked at Oscar, but none claimed the body.  Local citizens also began to call him Oscar.  His fingerprints were taken to the FBI and The Red Cross.  Nowhere could the town folk get an identification.  Finally, they put stories into newspapers across the country with headlines that read:  Have you seen Oscar?
  
The story of Oscar spread and he became an outstanding tourist attraction for Greensboro.  At first he lay on a table dressed in a neater suit than he had worn in life, and was covered by a sheet.  Later, he was placed in a box and finally a coffin with a glass top so that people could just walk by and view him.    Some claim that on Halloween he was placed in a standing position. 
  
By this time, Oscar had become a legend.  Local students would occasionally come to the store, ring the door bell and ask for Oscar.  It became a rite of passage for high school seniors to see and touch Oscar’s mummified body before graduation.  He was, indeed, the most famous unknown man around these parts. 
  
All this changed when a Georgia Health Department Official was dispatched to investigate the Oscar situation.  He asked a question of Mr. McCommons, “Is this really true that you have a man here who died 15 years ago?”  “No,” Mr. McCommons replied, “He died 25 years ago!”  The official insisted that the Funeral Home bury Oscar, thus ending the story of the town’s most famous unknown man.
Mr. McCommons told friends that he was saddened to have to bury the best night watchman he ever had!