Talk 20 Slides 16-20

Wow, did life get busy. Shortly after my talk my Daddy passed away. And, as I felt things slowing down from all that comes with that we had the opportunity to purchase a downtown building after a 2+ year search. So, here we are in July!

Let's wrap up the slides.

Slide 16: Eastside Cemetery & Talking Tombstones

Eastside Cemetery is also the location for Talking Tombstones, an annual fundraiser of the Hutchinson Theatre Guild. Since 2007 actors have portrayed the lives of over 50 people buried at Eastside. Many of them were prominent citizens responsible for the development of our city.

Others were stories that needed to be remembered like the murder of the 5 Moore children and Laura Fife, a young black girl that fell to her death from the roller coaster in Riverside Park, present day Carey Park.  

Mark your calendars for October 24^th for the 9^th annual Talking Tombstones and support your local theatre guild.

Slide 17: Cemetery Sign Project

In 2009 I coordinated a project for the Reno Co Genealogical Society to place signs at 17 cemeteries in the county that did not have one. Through a grant from Honoring Our Ancestors and fundraising efforts we were able to complete the project.

The signs were installed by cemetery caretakers and members of our genealogical society, Dwayne & Vivian Gobin and Jay and Jeannie Moore.

This was an important project, not only to help researchers find a cemetery, but especially for those burials located in rural and remote locations, including fields that are farmed around them.

The Hutchinson News and The Clarion helped us share our project with the community.

Slide 18: Cemetery Bookshelf  
I have a small library of books that offer informational, educational and entertaining cemetery resources, including several on signs and symbolism.

Among my favorites are:Stories in Stone, Forever Dixie, Going Out in Style by Douglas Keister; Soul in the Stone, Cemetery Art from America’s Heartland by John Gary Brown;  And books about some of the wonderful cemeteries I’ve visited like Bonaventure in Savannah GA that was featured in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. And, Bellfontaine in St. Louis, as one book notes is filled with Movers, shakers and scalawags. 

Slide 19: Love in the cemetery
We can find much more than death in the cemetery. Sometimes we find love. Jon is a civil war re-enactor and Kristen was a reporter for the Hutchinson News when they met at Eastside Cemetery.

It was during a headstone dedication for John Crooms, a civil war veteran born into slavery in Kentucky and died a free man in Hutchinson in 1922.

Jon & Kristen are getting married this Spring.

Slide 20: Where to find me
To date I have photographed over 360 cemeteries across 13 states, that total thousands of photographs. I share bits and pieces on my blogs, Digital Cemetery Walk  and Eastside Cemetery while I continue to add to my collection of photographs, maps, brochures, books, interment lists and anything else cemetery related.

I almost started my talk with “My name is Gale and I collect dead people.” Instead, I’ll leave you with this:

Cemeteries offer an afternoon of discovery and History remembers the famous-----genealogy remembers everyone.