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The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!
Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!
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Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
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West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.
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Tombstone Tales: Local cemetery markers offer stories and insight into lives |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 08 August 2004 |
Tombstone Tales: Local cemetery markers offer stories and insight into lives lived
By JENNIFER GRANT
August 8, 2004
Dead men may tell no tales, but their tombstones sure do. That's the belief of author Doug Keister, who's written the newly published "Stories in Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography."
And it's oh too true if one takes the time to walk the hallowed grounds surrounding some of Southwest Florida's cemeteries.
It may seem odd — or even gruesome — to some, but Keister says it's a fact that each person who's laid to rest has a story to tell, a story of their lives and their deaths, even if it is in one sentence or less. And it's a lesson in history when searching cemeteries.
"It's one of those guilty pleasures," Keister says, not a morbid one, though. It's a serene one, even a spiritual one. And it's one that he also shares.
He's been all over the country scouting out stones. That's why he wrote his book in the first place. He'd written 25 books and the California resident was working on a magazine article on mausoleums in 1997 when he realized there was an interest in smaller scale stuff.
"A real interest in genealogy and symbolism," he says.
And so his guidebook was born.
Mostly his book has to do with historical iconography, from angels to secret societies. It's the sort of thing that anyone can take along on a trip and do a personal tour of a grave site, using his book for reference.
Tombstone tours may also seem bizarre, but they're more popular than ever, offered by travel groups who want to give "spirited tours" of areas. Of course, most of those tours are those of cemeteries where deceased presidents or other famous people like Elvis are laid to rest, but there are tours in Florida cemeteries, such as ghost tours of St. Augustine, a Key West City cemetery tour, and one historical Miami cemetery tour.
There may not be any tours in Southwest Florida per se, but there's still a whole lot of history and a bevy of stories to tell.
Take for instance, Rosemary Cemetery. It's a tiny postage stamp of a resting place encased by black wrought iron fencing, protecting it from busy Pine Ridge Road and U.S. 41 North. What's interesting about this spot is that it's smack dab in front of an Eckerd drug store with passers-by parking in the lot adjacent to this historical location.
Originally established on 20 acres of land, it served as the town's only cemetery until 1955. The graves of several pioneer families were moved here during the 1930s from a cemetery at Third Street and 10th Avenue S. in Old Naples. There are people like John and Madison Weeks, Naples' first permanent settlers laid to rest here.
The largest stone in the cemetery is that of MOTHER who was born in 1856 and died April 26, 1920. What's significant is what her four children wrote about her. "We could no longer keep her here. She has gone on to land more fair."
There are about two dozen other more plain stones, but even those awash with the word INFANT on the top tell a sad tale.
Speaking of history, there's the old Bonita Springs Community Cemetery that graces the corner of Livingston and Bonita Beach roads which has been around since the late 1800s.
It's a small resting place, cradled under a canopy of old oaks and shrubbery. There are the old and the newly departed in this place.
There's the circular gray stone with a couple dancing on it and it says "Round Dance Instructors." "Papa" or Frank Mulroy has been buried here since May of 1979, but his beloved "Mama," Agnes still lives on, awaiting the day she can meet her partner in the sky.
There's another stone nearby with two white dogs etched in gray stone. Then there's a bird bath with a dragon that's strategically placed near a simple stone.
These types of icons may not be historical, but as local cemetery personnel see it, people are making modern stories of their own.
Rather than the old iconography that Keister speaks of in his book, "Today it's more emblems," says Rick Taylor, third generation cemetery operator and now general manager of Palm Royale Cemetery located on Vanderbilt Beach Road. "The intricacies of the old aren't really there."
But the stones are still telling stories, Taylor says. He's been in the business since the 1960s and has seen many changes. "Today it's an emblem depicting something in their lives. I haven't even heard (the word) icons in a long time."
Then he hands over a recent cemetery magazine with the picture of a black and white granite piano. "That's one huge icon," he says of the life-sized baby grand that depicts some deceased person's life. "They can do just about anything these days."
This week he even got a request for a motorcycle to be placed on a stone in memory of someone who loved riding.
"There has been a renaissance in the tombstone business," author Keister says, adding it's due to the Baby Boomers who want to create their own statement. "They're thinking about their mortality and how they want to be remembered."
Chuck Horvath, regional sales manager for Naples Memorial Gardens (a cemetery which has been around since 1950 or so), agrees, but he notes that 35 years ago the memorial park evolved and the cemetery atmosphere changed forever as the business realized that cemeteries were for the living to remember their deceased loved ones, not the other way around.
It became "more park-like and less the tombstone-and-boogie-man concept," he says of the old thought on "graveyards."
There was still a need to memorialize, though. And in came the hobbies and other pastimes that have modernized the cemetery stone world.
"Personalization has really caught on," Horvath says. "They're not as ornate as they used to be," but in some ways more personal.
For instance, Horvath says there's a cemetery in Richmond, Va., where the founder of a great doughnut empire has made a beautiful statement to his late wife. There's no discussion of the sweet cakes, just an intricate statue of the man's late wife in her wedding gown, and next to it is a more recent statue of her in later years. Both statues lead the way to her final resting place.
"He wanted to memorialize her," says Horvath, and the man wanted other generations to remember what she looked like during her lifetime.
Memorializing a loved one is important.
"It's your legacy," Horvath says. "It's your final footprint."
Keister personally thinks it's important to leave a name somewhere, whether it's on a tombstone or on an engraved urn. Anything that reminds people of their existence on earth.
Take the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, for example. Keister says "It's simple, but it's one of the most moving things you'll ever see."
Not to be caught being too glum about mortality, there's a silly slogan that Keister likes to remind people of when thinking about their own demise.
"You only have one chance to make a last impression," he says and laughs.
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/neapolitan/article/0,2071,NPDN_14939_3094476,00.html
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