Hard to top the epitaph for the fallen Spartans at Thermopylae:
Tell them in Sparta, passerby,
That here, obedient to their law, we lie
My dad’s and my favorite from our local cemetery, on a headstone erected by a relieved widower:
Forty years with a tongue so sharp
O angels, give her a harp!
There’s also Benjamin Franklin’s grave in Philadelphia’s Christ Church Burial Ground, home also to the graves of several other early-American personalities. Franklin’s tombstone is a slab covering the grave, and what makes it especially interesting is people throw pennies onto it. I understand the pennies, but wouldn’t $100 bills be more appropriate?
I posted this before, but one time we were walking in a cemetery in Michigan and noticed a family gravestone that listed 3 adults and 3 children. It was obviously some tragedy, except one of the adult’s date of death was a week prior to everyone else’s. For the longest time we couldn’t figure out what happened. This was in the early days of the internet, and searching turned up nothing. Eventually Google caught up and I found the morbid answer. Some guy died in a motorcycle accident in California. His family members (2 adults and 3 children) started to drive to the funeral from Florida where they were on vacation, but their car broke down near New Orleans. They bought airline tickets on Pan Am Flight 759. The article was how the parents went to California for their son’s funeral, then had to fly to New Orleans to identify the bodies of their daughters and grandchildren.
My favorite is the one that says
And we all know mine already.
Regards,
Shodan
Near the family plot, there is an oldish plaque (ca. 1940s) for a “Chester Boddy.” We can never pass it without giggling.
Family plot now being 3,000 miles away, it disturbs me to drive past a kwaint Nwingland cemetary from time to time and see an enormous centerstone bearing nothing but my family name. Front and center, facing the road, can’t not-see it.
Near the Frederick and Carroll county board in Maryland there was a slave who carved stones. It is believed that he was illiterate.
His name was ‘Boss’ Hammond and there about 150 know stones in the area. His carvings often had really intricate patterns on the top and sides.
I’ve been photographing stones in the area and have only seen a couple that were not made by him that are similar.
Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati
The article talks about two of the more interesting graves there. The Dexter Memorial is a creepy gothic looking tomb, almost a castle. It’s huge for just one person.
Charles Breuer’s tombstone has a bust set in the front that people say contains his actual eyes. I’ve walked up to it and looked it right in the eyes, and if they aren’t real then the person who made them should get an award. It is also quite creepy.
The rest of the cemetery has a bunch of different styles of tombstones, some with large ornate sculptures. It’s also supposed to be haunted, one story I heard says that one of the children buried there can be seen playing at night sometimes.
And the possibly apocryphal story of the wit who added:
It’s hard to top the simplicity of artist Patrick Caulfield’s self designed stone in Highgate Cemetery
This one, close to the place I grew up.
The text on the cross says (in Danish) “Here rest a little unknown girl 6 or 7 years old who drifted ashore at Botofte Beach after the flood 18th November 1872”.
I think it’s sweet that the grave appears to be tended, and even has flowers planted around it, 144 years later.
My FIL died somewhat prematurely and only then the family purchased a plot in the city cemetery. I wonder - do you get a choice in location? Anyway, the stone next to his gravesite - already there - is engraved with TWO CROSSED REVOLVER PISTOLS :rolleyes:. It’s so stupid looking it’s funny - the artwork looks like a 1950’s child’s toy advertisement.
My MIL or wife’s family have never commented that I know of - that wouldn’t be a proper thing to do…
My FIL was a great observer of irony. If he were still around he’d say “Mercy!” 
Is the cemetery actually owned by the city, or some other organization?
Three important cemeteries in our city are owned or maintained by private businesses. They have sections for different religious groups, that I assume once purchased or negotiated such an arrangement. This allows folks who knew each other, or had common interests, to have graves close to each other. My father is burried in the Lutheran section of the second largest cemetery in town. Around him are many people who were members of his church. But there’s one plot that belongs to our family that will probably not be used, and my mom is considering donating it to someone who needs it, not necessarily a Lutheran. No rules against selling plots like that.
I imagine in cemeteries that don’t have special sections that there are price differences depending on location within the cemetery. Not as many people would want to be way out at the back, or right at the edge of the land closest to public roads.
That one sounds like an outtake from Jay Leno’s “Headlines”, when he would display wedding announcements for people who had unusual name combinations.
I’ve seen very old tombstones that had photographs on them (most likely sealed in glass) and nowadays, you can have any picture you want scanned and then cut into the stone with a laser.
I used to live in the area where these people lived, and knew the family. I sure hope the parents got permission from all the other parents before they used some of the pictures on this stone. The children were in a car accident.
I know of two. One is a somewhat famous example of the underappreciated genius John Keats. The other belongs to an ancestor of mine. It’s a large, brown boulder with no adornment except for the following inscription:
“God, our Rock”
Olson
[birth year]-[death year]
My family has always favored understatement to point of austerity.
I guess the very odd tomb of Sir Richard Francis Burton counts. Not only is it designed to look like an Arab tent (in sandstone), but it had a system of camel bells rigged to electric “shakers” and a huge battery so that when the door was opened all the bells would jingle. (RFB frequently referred to the sound of camel bells in the distance as a harbinger of death.)
I had the pleasure of working with the committee that restored the dilapidated tomb a few years ago. It’s worth a visit if you’re in London and have a free hour.
There are numerous interesting stones in a cemetery in Barre, Vermont. https://www.google.com/search?q=barre+vermont+cemetery&biw=1920&bih=888&tbm=isch&imgil=Jg5Owaro_ro9nM%253A%253B1VX1WdGTzbA9LM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.central-vt.com%25252Fweb%25252Fhope%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=Jg5Owaro_ro9nM%253A%252C1VX1WdGTzbA9LM%252C_&usg=__FH8vq8WQWwjFnz5G6WUadz3VyD0%3D&ved=0ahUKEwixy_zC5-fNAhVKXB4KHftqB6YQyjcILg&ei=aq2BV7HuIcq4efvVnbAK#imgrc=_IiLGc7qi3wzBM%3A
Isn’t a lot of granite mined in Vermont? It wouldn’t have to be transported very far, that’s for sure.
Here’s the gravestone for the notorious shock rocker GG Allin. (SFW) I have heard that it had to be removed because visitors were, ahem, vandalizing his grave. 
As for the comments being disabled, the only other times I’ve seen that was for Jerry Falwell and several serial killers.
Might help if I posted a link.
Last summer, I drove through a large cemetery in my city mainly because I found out they had a Petland and wanted to see it. I pulled over when I thought I had located it, but instead found myself at Babyland. 
There was one family that lost two children in the early 1980s, before they were a year old; the second was born on the first anniversary of the older one’s death. :eek: The saddest thing about Babyland is that while the area was mowed, most of the flat stones had sod growing over them, and some were almost swallowed up, meaning that nobody had visited them and presumably trimmed them.
It’s in the beautiful Key West cemetery
