While we didn't talk about their burials - it was still Arlington Plantation and not yet Arlington National Cemetery when they passed away - both of Mary Custis Lee's parents were buried on the grounds before the Civil War. George Washington Parke Custis and Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis were laid to rest under a large tree in what is today Section 13. Theirs are some of the only headstones behind a fence on the cemetery grounds today.
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George Washington Park Custis and Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis are buried in Section 13, Spaces 6513 and 6512, respectively.
George Washington Park Custis build the Arlington Mansion as a memorial/museum dedicated to the memory of his step-grandfather and adoptive father, George Washington, and decorated the interior with artifacts from the Mount Vernon Estate, where he grew up.
At the time of his passing, George's will stipulated that Arlington Plantation should pass to his daughter Mary Custis Lee and at the time of her passing the plantation was to be inherited by Mary's oldest son, Custis.
After the US Government sized Arlington at the beginning of the Civil War, Mary Lee fought hard to have the property restored to her.
She only returned to her former home once after the war, just a few months before her death. At that time she said the property had changed so much that she could no longer recognize it as the place she grew up. George and Mary's daughter was buried beside her late husband, Robert E. Lee on the campus of George Washington University, nearly 200 miles to the southwest in Lexington, VA.
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