That book was a big hit.

Now Keister is back with another cemetery guide book, Forever Dixie, A Field Guide to Southern Cemeteries and Their Residents (Gibbs Smith, $19.99). This book is very similar to the first book and covers some of the same subject matter. What sets it apart is its focus on the South. The cemeteries Keister visited for this book include the Metairie Cemetery and other prominent cemeteries around the region.

The mausoleums and edifices in these burial grounds are impressive, but they’re not unique. Everyone everywhere honors their dead in some fashion. And while the custom of above-ground burial in south Louisiana is unusual, it’s not the only place this occurs. In fact, Keister discusses the origin of this custom in the book and says it wasn’t because of the water table (other places where the water table is high don’t practice above-ground burial, he notes) but rather a cultural legacy from the Spanish period. Above-ground burial is common in Spain and southern Europe, he notes.

So what is peculiarly southern about this book? Well, surely there is nothing like the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard anywhere else in the country. There are pet cemeteries galore, but none of this particular nature. This cemetery, in Tuscumbia, Ala., is the final resting place of coon dogs who are not just pets, not just friends, but hunting partners of their masters. It’s no wonder that Moma, Blue Kate, Old Roy and Troop got permanent headstones. One dog’s epitaph reads “Still Treed.” There is a beautiful sculpture on one grave that depicts two dogs trying to climb a tree trunk. Now this is southern.

Like the first book, Keister illustrates this book with his own color photographs. He visited burial sites of famous southerners like Martin Luther King, Elvis and John Luther “Casey” Jones. It makes for interesting reading.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/entertainment/books/35222349.html