I live in a very old (founded 1634) town north of Boston, with several cemeteries, including the Old North Burying Ground:
The Old North Burying Ground in Ipswich, Massachusetts was established in 1634 upon the founding of the town and is one of the oldest cemeteries in North America.
The cemetery is laid out at first on fairly level ground but primarily on a steep slope (likely because the land was useless for farming or even grazing stock) and abuts Highland Cemetery, a more modern burying ground on level land at the top of the rise.
Tucked away in a small enclave surrounded by woods is a much smaller cemetery, the Immigrant Cemetery:
Most of those buried in this cemetery are of Greek or Polish descent and came to Ipswich to work in the mills
This cemetery was used for the burial of immigrants to the town, from about 1913 until about 1939. Most came to Ipswich to work at the Ipswich Mills and the Brown Mill (on Brownville Ave.)
There’s also the Locust Grove Cemetery, a modest graveyard somewhat off the main road through town.
I have walked through all three, pausing to contemplate headstones, read the names and dates, and reflect upon those lives and their part in the history of Ipswich. More than a few of the names in Locust Grove especially have living descendants in Ipswich today.
On our last visit to the Los Angeles area, my wife and I spent a day visiting a couple cemeteries. The first was Forest Lawn in Glendale. Lots of celebrities including Michael Jackson. Lots of sculptures and other art work. No one can get into the hallway to Jackson’s grave, can’t see much anyway, he is under 6 tons of concrete.
We then went to Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park. The most famous grave here is Marilyn Monroe. It is a vault with white marble that is now pink from all the lipstick on it. Hugh Hefner is in a vault next to Monroe’s, he supposedly spent a few million dollars to get that spot. Lots of celebrities in what is a very small cemetery, it’s less than an acre. Don Knotts, Rodney Dangerfield, Dean Martin and Merv Griffin. Burt Lancaster is in a communal cremation vault and has a very small grave marker.
I was thinking I never visited a cemetery (it’s not my thing) but then I remembered my first trip to New Orleans. We went to St Louis Cemetery No 1, where Marie Laveau’s tomb is located (she was a Voodoo high priestess). There were pieces of chalk on the ground which visitors used to make an X on the tomb, for voodoo reasons. I remember doing it but then learning later that it was actually discouraged.
I also left an offering of some mardi gras beads.
My gf and a coworker went to London a few years ago for a pubs & graveyard experience. They didn’t visit any of the famous spots, just pubs and graveyards. In one graveyard they found a very old headstone with the name “Tom” on it. A European Robin was on the stone and they got a great picture. The bird flew off when they got close, but came back immediately. They were kind of freaked out over the bird’s attraction to Tom’s stone.
I’ve been to both Edith Piaf’s grave and Jim Morrison’s grave, both in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris. I’ve visited Westminster Abbey and seen the graves of monarchs. I’ve been to Arlington Cemetery and seen the Kennedy grave, among others. An historian named Bagoy used to give guided tours of the graves of notable Alaskans in the Anchorage cemetery, and talk about their lives, which was very educational. I see nothing at all wrong with it.
I fail to see the disrespect in simply visiting a grave.OTTOMH I’d like to visit the grave of Harry Chapin and throw some change on it- as is the custom of his fans.
People - genealogists, mainly - visit cemeteries for the sole purpose of cataloging who is buried there. Find A Grave has millions of these sorts of records. I’ve contributed my share of my own family’s gravesites. It’s a very helpful tool for those who are into genealogy.
I was in Cathedral City, California, right next to Palm Springs. More than a few famous people call that area home. In addition to Sinatra, I visited the graves of Sonny Bono, Frederick Loewe, and William Powell.
Several years ago, probably on account of some thread here at the Dope, I found that Wernher von Braun is buried in the same cemetery where my father is buried. I haven’t gone looking for his grave.
But a short story: I found this out during lunch one day at work. After lunch, I mentioned this fact to two of my younger co-workers. “Who’s Wernher von Braun?” they asked. I explained, and mentioned that he was the subject of a song by Tom Lehrer. “Who’s Tom Lehrer?” they said almost in unison.
I think it’s weird. But I come from a culture where we don’t bury and I would never ever be buried, so I think visiting graves in general is a little weird. Why? They bones. They either can’t hear you at all or if I am completely wrong about everything, they can hear you everywhere. Why where their last remains were interred? Where the bugs are eating them? Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, there is just a human-made gravestone and a human-dug hole left.
And it’s even weirder with celebrities. You don’t even know this person but you are making a mess to get to their grave.
But I never say anything to anyone. Good for them if they want to go! You just asked, is all.
I would have no problem visiting the grave of a celebrity I miss and admire. I personally wouldn’t leave any offerings since I tend to see it more like littering the grave, which would then have to be cleaned up later. I’d rather not create a mess.
I’ve never had any desire to do it myself, but I don’t think visiting the last resting place of a famous person for whom you felt some admiration is in poor taste, as long as you’re doing no harm or showing any disrespect.
How about visiting the place where a celebrity (or celebrities) died?
I live about 10 miles from the site where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson’s plane crashed after playing at the Surf Ballroom in Clear lake, IA, also known as the day the music died.
I finally got around to visiting it last summer, walk about a 1/4 mile along a fence row to the memorial. Lots of mementoes/trinkets/black rimmed glasses left around it. We met 4 people walking back from the site, another couple was right behind us, and on our way back 2 other groups were on their way to the site. Surprised how busy it was being out in the middle of nowhere with the entrance at the intersection of 2 gravel roads.
I really didn’t know how to feel, the history mixed with the tragedy.
My best memory of Paris, was hanging out at Jim Morrison’s grave about 25 years ago, sipping tall boys out of a brown bag, smoking a cig, and watching the waves of visitors. Old hippie grandmothers with little grandkids, polish teens, it was great. Security guard busted me for drinking the second beer and I had to leave.
My daughter’s memorial was at the same place where Jimi Hendrix was buried outside of Seattle. Supposedly, Jimi had been secretly reburied somewhere else because of all the visitors to the mausoleum. But his family are interred there. I asked the nice lady managing our memorial where to find Jimi’s grave, she said “just follow the smell of pot.”
Guitar picks left all over the mausoleum.
I haven’t been to Bruce Lee’s grave but one of these days…
What I remember about Jimi Hendrix’s grave was the chicken wire that the grass was growing through, laid there to keep visitors from taking souvenir clods
I’ve been to the field where The Day The Music Died. And also to the Surf Ballroom.
I’ve visited Gus Grissom’s and Roger Chaffee’s graves. And John Glenn’s. And the Iwo Jima flag raisers also at Arlington. And of course, JFK there too.
I’ve visited the graves of several presidents. And Elvis. And a few others.
The Jewish tradition is to be buried and a maker placed around a year later. That’s my culture and I agree that it’s weird. What a waste of land. People are there who no one alive remembers and no one visits. I don’t ever visit where my dad is and I definitely won’t be buried. First they’ll take my useable organs, then what’s left goes to an anatomy lab and they can throw what’s left after that in a fucking dumpster as far as I’m concerned.
But I don’t begrudge people who want to visit famous people’s graves if it gives them solace. It’s not disrespectful.
moments.