Have you ever wondered where some of our more famous personalities were laid to rest? Did you know, for instance, that Francis Scott Key, the composer of the Star Spangled Banner, is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Frederick, Maryland, or that John T. Scopes, the Tennessee school teacher who figured in the notorious "Monkey Trial" of the 1920s, was interred at Oak Grove Cemetery, Padukah, Kentucky? Perhaps you have a special admiration for someone like composers George and Ira Gershwin, in which case you might want to visit their grave sites when you're in the vicinity of Mt. Hope Cemetery at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Now, for the first time, there is a book that will help you to locate the final resting place of more than 20,000 notable persons who were either buried or cremated in the United States. Arranged by subject category and thereunder alphabetically, Where They're Buried is a goliath of a work that catalogues deceased celebrities from all walks of life: from business leaders, inventors and sculptors to federal office holders, governors and mayors; from artists, editors and attorneys to physicians, musicians and military officers; and from actors, ball players and cartoonists to chemists, choreographers and movie directors. There is even a Rogue's Gallery of assassins, desperados, racketeers, spies, and counterspies. While Mr. Spencer does not attest to having included every notable American of bygone days, he can certainly claim to have broken the ice by canvassing, as he has, notable figures in American history from the colonial period to 1997. Where elected officials are concerned he can certainly claim to have done even more than that, inasmuch as a full third of the book lists their resting places.
This is a great browser of a volume. Open it to any page and you'll turn up the burial place of someone you've heard of or have an interest in. Given the book's remarkable coverage, it's bound to keep you turning and turning. |
