Gravely Speaking

CORA

WIFE OF JOSEPH F.

LEMBERGER

MAY 1, 1860

SEPT. 17, 1901

The tall gray-marble square column gravestone in the Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska, pictured above displays an incised carving of gate, a very common symbol found in American cemeteries.  In this example a crown and a cross are carved above the gates.  The gates, which are an important part of the Last Judgment, represent a passageway.  The gates are the portal for saved souls to make their passage from the Earthly realm to Heaven upon Christ’s return.

The crown is a symbol of glory and reward and victory over death.  The reward comes after life and the hard-fought battle on Earth against the wages of sin and the temptations of the flesh.  The reward awaits in Heaven where the victor will receive a crown of victory.  The crown also represents the sovereign authority of the Lord.  The cross, of course, is the universal symbol of Christianity.

ROSA B. MOORE

1876 – 1911

GONE BUT NOT

FORGOTTEN

In the example below, also found at the Wyuka Cemetery, the symbol of the gates is not carved on the gravestone, but the gates ARE the gravestone.  And, in this case the gates are not closed but slightly ajar.  The cemetery booklet* suggests the gates just might be ajar “for easy passage by Rosa Moore to her eternal reward.”

*Wyuka Cemetery: A driving & Walking Tour, page 78, written by Ed Zimmer, published in 2009 by the Wyuka Historical Foundation  

JOSEPH OADES

OF ENGLAND

DIED DEC. 10, 1885 AGED 57 YRS.

— —

IN MEMORY OF MARY ELIZA OADES

THE BELOVED WIFE OF JOSEPH OADES

DIED MAR. 26, 1871 AGED 29 YEARS

The Oades grave markers in the Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska, were produced by the Western White Bronze Company of Des Moines, Iowa, a subsidiary of the Monumental Bronze Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. 

Though the company billed the markers as “white bronze” they were cast zinc.  The zinc markers are often referred to as “Zincies” by cemetery aficionados.  The markers are distinguishable by their bluish-gray tint. Many of the designs mimicked designs that were commonly found carved from stone. The Oades markers are designed to look like rounded-top tablets. The zinc markers were produced beginning in the 1870s until the company closed shop in 1912.

A scroll on the face of each of the markers contains the name and death dates of the Joseph and Mary Eliza Oades. The scroll represents both the life of the deceased, and the time spent on Earth.

Above the scroll is a dove.  Several references in the Bible refer to the dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit including Mark 1:10 the Bible says, “And Straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.” Again in John 1:32, the Bible reads, “And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.”  Along with the dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit, the dove is also closely associated with peace, often depicted with a olive in its beak. This, too, originated in the Bible. After the waters receded in the story of Noah, the dove appears. Genesis 8:11, “And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off; so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.”   It was a sign of God’s forgiveness. Thus the dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit, peace, and purity. 

The back of the markers features a woman’s hand holding a lily of the valley sprig. The lily of the valley is much like other lilies in funerary art and viewed as a symbol of innocence and purity.  

According to the booklet, Wyuka Cemetery: A driving & Walking Tour, page 70, written by Ed Zimmer, published in 2009 by the Wyuka Historical Foundation, “The Oades were born in England and immigrated to Lancaster County through Canada.  Mary Eliza was only 29 years old when she died in 1871, just two years after the founding of Wyuka.  Mr. Oades was suffering from “St. Vitus’s dance” a neurological disease that causes uncontrollable movements, when he took his own life at age 57 in 1885.”

The Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, is divided into two sections by the Des Plaines River.  Emma Goldman’s gravestone, the Druid Monument, the Haymarket Martyr’s Monument among others are in the main section of the cemetery.  The smaller section of the cemetery just across the Des Plaines River has fewer gravestones and mausoleums.  But one unmarked and plain mausoleum holds within its walls a famous broadcaster and his wife, “Angel”.

He got his start in life in Tulsa, Oklahoma—the son of a police officer who was killed in a robbery gone wrong. As a young boy, he was fascinated with radios and in his spare time made radio receivers.  As is often the case, a big influence on his life was a teacher who remarked that he had a certain timbre in his voice that would be terrific for radio. 

Radio at the time was a medium that had taken off and most families listened to the radio for their news and entertainment.  So, in 1933, the teenaged boy got a job cleaning the local radio station in Tulsa.  It turned out to be his big break in radio as he was eventually given the chance to read commercials and news on KVOO Radio.  While attending the University of Tulsa, he continued to work as an announcer at the station and was promoted to program director, which led to other positions in other markets—Oklahoma City, Salina, Kansas, and St. Louis, Missouri.  It was in St. Louis in 1940, while working for KXOK Radio that he met and married Lynne Cooper—“Angel”—a school teacher who later became his producer and partner in the radio business.

During World War II, he continued his radio career after a brief stint in the armed forces.  In 1951, he began airing segments for which he became famous.  Eventually these segments became syndicated, and his program reached a staggering 24 million people a week and was broadcast on 1,200 radio stations.

His unique way of describing a story and his staccato-style delivery gained him fame and multitudes of recognition and many industry awards including induction into the National Association of Broadcasters National Radio Hall of Fame, induction into The Oklahoma Hall of Fame, and the prestigious Paul White Award of the Radio and Television Digital News Association. He even received America’s highest civilian award—the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The son of Harry Harrison Aurandt and Anna Dagmar Christensen Aurandt, became nationally known for his radio program which aired from 1951 until 2008, his unique delivery, his staccato-style, and such catch phrases as “Hello Americans, this is Paul Harvey, stand by for news!”  That famous broadcaster in the unmarked mausoleum is none other than Paul Harvey—“Now you know the rest of the story!”

Paul Harvey Aurandt

September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009

Lynne “Angel” Harvey

October 4, 1913 – May 3, 2008

David E. Thompson

February 28, 1854

August 25, 1942

Jeanette M. Thompson

October 16, 1867

July 21, 1911

The Thompson monument in the Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska, was commissioned by D. E. Thompson upon the death of his wife Jeanette Thompson.  The Thompsons were a “power couple” in Lincoln in the 1890s and early 1900s.  D. E. Thompson was a prominent businessman serving as superintendent of the Burlington Railroad west of the Missouri River and as the president of the local gas and insurance companies.  Eventually his business acumen and connections led him into politics.  According to Wyuka Cemetery: A Driving & Walking Tour by Ed Zimmer (2009), Thompson was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt U. S. envoy to Brazil and later as ambassador to Mexico. 

Thompson commissioned Fred L. Kimball, a noted Nebraska artist, to create the Thompson family monument.  The sculpture was cast at the Jno Walters Foundry in New York.  The monument is comprised of pink granite and has a life-size bronze relief sculpture in the center depicting a mourning figure lifting part of her garment over her head to form a veil.  The veil represents the partition that exists between the Earthly realm and the Heavenly one–between life and death.  In her other hand she is clutching a floral wreath. This is a common Victorian funerary symbol expressing the transitory nature of life.  D. E. Thompson died in 1942 in Southern California.  His remains were cremated and interred at the family plot.

The Thompson Monument is similar to a monument created for James Melvin who commissioned Daniel Chester French to design a memorial to his three fallen brothers. The monument is in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.  Daniel Chester French was arguably the most noted sculptor of his day, creating such monumental works as Minute Man at Concord, Massachusetts, the Marshall Field Memorial in Graceland Cemetery at Chicago, and his most famous work—the Seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial at Washington, D.C.

When James Melvin came back from the Civil War after serving in the 6^th Massachusetts Infantry, he was not joined by his brothers, Asa, John, and Samuel. They had all served in the 1^st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery unit which took heavy losses throughout the war. John was the first to perish—he, at a military hospital in Fort Albany, Virginia. Asa died on the battlefield during an assault on Petersburg, and Samuel, who had been captured, died at the infamous and reviled Andersonville prison.

French created the sculpture he titled, Mourning Victory, which features a woman as the allegorical figure of victory. Here again the mourning figure is lifting part of her garment over her head to form a veil. However, in French’s sculpture the mourning figure is holding a sprig of laurel in her other hand. The laurel wreath dates back to Roman times when soldiers wore them as triumphal signs of glory.  The laurel was also believed to wash away the soldier’s guilt from injuring or killing any of his opponents.  In funerary art the laurel wreath is often seen as a symbol of victory over death.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which has a replica of the statue in marble in their collection, describes the statue, “The massive figure of Mourning victory emerges from the block of stone projecting two moods: melancholy, in her downcast eyes and somber expression, and triumph, in the American flag and laurel she holds high. French captured the sense of calm after the storm of battle, which must have referred to the pride, after the sorrow of grieving, felt by the surviving brother.”

The similarities of the two monuments display common Victorian symbolism captured by each artist.

OLOF W. PALM

NOVEMBER 8, 1863

OCTOBER 28, 1939

CLARA LOUISA PALM

MARCH 29, 1861

SEPTEMBER 21, 1931

In 1928, the Georgia Marble Company of Tate, Georgia, produced a marketing piece in the form of a book titled, Memorials: To-Day for To-Morrow written by William Henry Deacy. The book was designed to showcase their memorial designs by highlighting them in the book with lush full-color watercolor illustrations of the various memorials. Along with the illustrations the book provided explanations of the symbolism found in the memorials. The book also coupled an architectural drawing of how the memorial is to be made.

The stele, a stone or wooden slab generally taller than it is wide and designed as a funeral commemorative, dates back many centuries and is one of the oldest gravestone forms.  Many examples of steles can be found in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece.

This example of a stele below was created for Daisios, son of Euthias on the east coast of Attica in Southern Greece.  The stele dates to the middle of the 4^th Century B.C. and has two rosettes on the shaft and is topped with an acroterion motif.

The example, however, found in the Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska, marking the graves of Olof and Clara Palm varies.  Though it has notable features of a traditional stele gravestone—the marker is taller than it is wide and the acroterion motif tops the marker—it is markedly different.  Traditionally the face of the stone would be bare except for two rosettes.  In this case, the Palms commissioned the Kimball Brothers to create the morning figure of a woman holding a rose, the symbol of romantic love.  The figure was carved by noted Nebraska sculptor Fred L. Kimball.

The stele was an interesting choice for the Palms as the acroterion is a classical motif found in Roman and Greek architecture and has its origins in Egyptian art and architecture.  The acroterion is a stylized palm leaf.  Coincidence?

TO THE GREAT GLORY OF GOD

AND IN LOVING MEMORY OF A

TRUE DAUGHTER OF THE OLD NORTH STATE

QUIDA ESTELLE EMERY HOOD

BORN RALEIGH, N. C. SEPT. 19^TH 1883

DIED MONROE, MICH. FEB. 27^TH 1930.

A magnificent and wonderful woman of noble deeds

and high attainment, a devoted Christian, trusting

in God’s goodness and mercy, whose life was

dedicated to untiring service to humanity.

Her memory will endure as a priceless heritage.

Patient, cheerful and unselfish.  A faithful true

and admirable friend a loving companion.  A lover

of her country, courageous and unafraid; through

her did all my achievements some, to God owe all.

Placing my trust in God I wait, setting my face

to the dawn of that new day when the shadows

will lift and we shall be again united.

FRANKLIN S. PRIKRYL

Ouida Estelle Emery Hood’s grave marker is one of the most elaborate in the Oakwood Cemetery in Raliegh, North Carolina. Hood who was born in Raliegh, North Carolina made her home in Frenchtown, Michigan, where she became active in the Frenchtown community—the Frenchtown Grange #749, the Frenchtown Juvenile Grange #85, the Boys and Girls 4-H Clubs, and the Ladies Economic Club.  Though she and Wallace had no children of their own, Ouida hosted annual Christmas and Easter parties for the Frenchtown area.  Her Easter festivities included hiding up to 1,000 colored Easter eggs for the children to hunt—and each child went home with their own chocolate egg.  Her gardens were acclaimed and she was a beloved member of the community.

Hood was married to Wallace C. Hood an automobile designer.  The couple rented a room to Franklin Stanley Prikryl, a real estate developer.  One day Wallace left and never returned—a mystery that was never solved.

The monument that marks Hood’s grave was commissioned by Franklin Prikryl and manufactured in Germany for the princely sum of $40,000, which in today’s dollars would be over $640,000.  In addition to that, Prikryl had 50 wooden barrels of soil from Ouida’s flower gardens from Monroe County, Michigan, to cover the ground above Ouida’s casket.  Prikryl purchased a grave plot for himself next to Ouida and had his name carved on the monument but inextricably was buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.

LESTER C. MADDEN

SEPT. 24, 1931—June 7, 1983

Yesterday, June 20^th, was the 49^th anniversary of the release of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster movie Jaws.  That movie, based on the Peter Benchley novel of the same name, spawned three sequels and so many knock-offs that there is an entire week devoted to shark movies for fans’ viewing pleasure.  Movies that include the original movie and sequels as well as Sharknado, Shark Night, Raiders of the Lost Shark, and Two-Headed Shark Attack, among many others.

Jaws also spawned a huge fan—Lester C. Madden.  In fact, he loved the movie so much that his wish was to have a gravestone that paid tribute to the movie.  His gravestone, in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a black granite replica of the original shark on the Jaws movie poster—with the shark’s open mouth bearing its deadly teeth.

Now that is a true fan!

RACHEL BLYTHE

WIFE OF

A.G. BUAER

Jan. 9, 1897 – Aged 26 YEARS

“True worth is being, not seeming.”

The inscription underneath her Rachel Baur’s picture:

In thy dark eyes splendor

Where the warm light loves to dwell

Weary looks yet tender

Speak their last farewell

There is an unusual cradle grave marker in the Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Cradle grave markers are so named because they resemble a cradle.  They consist of a footstone and headstone connected by two low stone walls forming a rectangle, the interior of which is used for plantings. The grave marker of Rachel Blythe Bauer is unusual in that the headstone is made of brick and forms a foundation that is topped by a small replica of a building that was designed to resemble the Temple of Diana in Ephesus.  Between two columns is a portrait of Mrs. Rachel Bauer.

Rachel Blythe and Adolphus Gustavus Bauer’s love story was uncertain from the start.  They were in love but because Rachel was from a prominent Cherokee family it was illegal in North Carolina at that time for Native Americans to marry outside their race.  However, the couple had been advised if they were married outside of their state, the marriage would be accepted and legal upon their return.  They were married in secret on November 15, 1894. They were married again in Washington D.C. on June 18, 1895.  However, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in June of that year, that the marriage was invalid, and the couple would be liable for prosecution if they returned to the state.  The McCook Tribune of Nebraska, June 28, 1895 edition reported that “in the event they attempt to live in North Carolina it is reasonably certain they will have trouble.”  However, the couple did return and no charges were brought forth. Rachel gave birth to their daughter, Owenah, in October of 1895. 

Adolphus flourished as an architect until tragedy struck on May 2, 1896, when the buggy he was riding in was struck by a train.  He suffered major injuries including dizzy spells, delusions, and depression.  He continued to work, however.  In December of 1896, Rachel gave birth. Shortly, after their son, Fred, was born tragedy struck again.  Rachel died on January 9, 1897, most likely from complications of dysentery.

Adolphus designed Rachel grave marker for his beloved wife.  The North Carolina legislature passed a bill validating the marriage of the couple.  It was announced in The North Carolinian on Thursday, March 11, 1897.  On May 11, 1898, Adolphus committed suicide.  He was found holding a photograph of Rachel.  The note he left behind requested that he be buried “buried by the side of my wife, in Raleigh, N.C., where I have so long sojourned and among the Southern people I have liked so well.”

Etta Rebecca White Ratcliff

October 24, 1880

May 28, 1918

Etta Ratcliff is buried next to one of the broad avenues in the Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Her gravestone features a carved angel—not unusual except the face of the angel is modeled after Etta herself. 

Etta was a mother of five and wife to William Emmet Ratcliff.  Ratcliff was a successful knitting factory owner.  Etta was a very young 37 years old when she died of a cerebral hemorrhage.  After her death, Ratcliff ordered a statue to be carved in her likeness. 

The statue, made of marble was carved in Italy.  During the shipment to America, the ship carrying the angel sank with Etta’s statue sinking with it.  Later it was recovered and placed where it now stands in the cemetery.

Maybe because of Etta’s angelic appearance and the resurrection of the statue itself from the bottom of the Atlantic, stories popped up with people claiming that as they walk past the angel, not only Etta’s eyes follow them, but some say her head moves following them.  Upon closer inspection of the statue, the neck has a crack, which some say is the reason the angel’s head can move about. There are claims that she has also been known to flutter her wings!

According to a WTVD broadcast, which aired Tuesday July 30, 2019, Oakwood Cemetery Executive Director Robin Simonton responded to the claims, “It’s … a little unsettling for us in a cemetery to see a statue that looks like a person.  It lends itself to urban legend.”

Urban legend or not, Etta’s angel watches over the passersby.

The Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina has a large section dedicated to Confederate soldiers who died in the war and those soldiers who served and survived and wished to buried there after the war.  The white marble gravestones are marked with birth and death dates of the fallen soldiers, with most of the dates from the war years to the late 19^th century.  However, there is a commemorative marker that was placed early this century, and it was for the last crew members on the CSS H.L. Hunley.

The CSS H. L. Hunley, named for its creator Horace Lawson Hunley, was an experimental warcraft, the first of its kind in naval history—a submarine that successfully sank another ship, the USS Housatonic, in combat.  The Hunley did not do this on its first try, however.  In fact, the Hunley, also nicknamed the “porpoise” and “the fish boat” sank twice before—on its maiden run August 29, 1863 killing its first crew of five members and later on October 15, 1863 killing all eight on board.  Hunley himself was drowned on that voyage.  The Hunley was raised both times and returned to battle.

The placard placed on the commemorative markers reads:

“On February 17^th, 1864 the CSS H.L Hunley was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in combat.  He sub was lost that night as well, when it sank just outside Charleston Harbour in SC. With all eight crewmembers perishing.  Crew Member James A Wicks was from North Carolina.  Whereas it played a small role in Civil War history it played a major role in American naval history.  The Confederate States of America submarine’s brave crew is listed below.  Buried beneath this marker are partial sedimentary remains of those brave naval men taken from the sub when it was raised from the floor of the ocean on August 8^th, 2000.

Lieutenant George E. Dixon, Commander

Arnold Becker

Corporal J. F. Carlsen

C. Lumpkin Miller

James A. Wicks

Joseph Ridgeway”

It is believed that when the crew fired its torpedo and hit the USS Housatonic, the impact of the explosion also sank the Hunley. The Hunley and its crew members were lost that night, until in 1995, the Hunley was found and raised for one last time. The Hunley is now on display at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, South Carolina.