The Ordinary, Extraordinary Cemetery

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Dianne and Jennie attempt to uncover the history surrounding a wooded cemetery located inside of Indian springs State Park in Butts County, Georgia. We are hoping this episode will encourage anyone who has more information on this cemetery to let us know. Perhaps your ancestors are buried there? We would love to learn more of the stories laid to rest in such a fascinating ordinary, extraordinary cemetery! 

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Kristen Allen, founder of BloomBridge, joins Jennie and Dianne this week to discuss how a promise to her grandmother led to building a business that helps to connect the living and the dead. BloomBridge believes there is something to be said for remembering your loved ones. Honoring someone after they pass is about respect and loyalty. Flowers in a cemetery represent that life is still there and brings peace of healing to those that are still here. They want to help spread that peace to everyone. 

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Jennie and Dianne share the history of Montana's oldest and best preserved ghost town and its cemeteries: Bannack, Montana.  They tell of the discovery of gold, the tenacity of the residents and they share some of the obituaries of those who were there when the town was born and when it was no more.  Come along to another ordinary, extraordinary cemetery in the wild, wild west!

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Special guest Karen Dustman tells the stories of stonecutter W.E.Lindsey who is credited with carving many elaborate headstones in Nevada, California, Illinois and many other states. She also shares the research she and her colleagues have done to publish the stories of the many ordinary, extraordinary souls buried in the Genoa Cemetery in Genoa, Nevada. 

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Jennie and Dianne are joined by special guest Jeff Levy to learn the mysterious story behind a unique, exotic and mysterious headstone located in Denver, Colorado's Fairmount Cemetery.  We learn that not everything carved in stone is as it seems in this ordinary, extraordinary cemetery. 

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Jennie and Dianne honor their Irish heritage by exploring Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, Ireland. This ordinary, extraordinary cemetery is the final resting place to more than 1.5 million souls including Irish revolutionaries, poets, musicians, and many more wonderful people. It is also the site of a tower that allows you to see the ocean and the Irish mountains. Ireland is a land of stories, magic, and history. 

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Jennie and Dianne visit Denver, Colorado's oldest, continuously operated cemetery, Riverside. They will discuss how Riverside Cemetery replaced Denver's first cemetery, how it lost its water rights, and tell three ordinary, extraordinary stories of some of its permanent residents. While this cemetery is no longer the garden glory it once was, it still contains many wonderful monuments and symbolism of the Victorian era.

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Join Jennie and Dianne as they talk with Lisa Sandmeyer, Superintendent at Historic Topeka Cemetery in Topeka, Kansas. Lisa is a wonderful storyteller as she introduces us to several fascinating women who are permanent residents of the cemetery. Some of these women include: Dr. Harriet Adams, (1867-1938), her sister Zu Adams (1859-1911) who made her career with the Kansas State Historical Society, and Hattie Freeman Tarbet (1849-1942) daughter of a freeborn-black man who built up her father's real estate investments in Topeka to become a very wealthy woman, as well as several others. Come along as we visit another ordinary, extraordinary cemetery!

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Lane Gresham and Brooks Garcia join Jennie to tell the stories of those buried in the Old Clarkesville Cemetery in Clarkesville, Georgia. They will introduce us to "the meanest man in Georgia", one of the first great photographers, a young man who lost his life in a tragic farming accident, and many others. They also talk about their many restoration efforts from repairing and preserving tombstones to bringing back many of the original flowers and plants of the Victorian era. Come along as we visit this truly ordinary, extraordinary cemetery where "they dig the dead!"

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Jennie, Dianne and special guest Lara Maerz explore Act 3 of Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town". The entire act takes place in the town cemetery. Find out how the fictional cemetery of Grovers Corner, New Hampshire compares to many small town cemeteries across America and around the world. We talk about the importance of sharing and remembering the ordinary, extraordinary people who make up the communities where these cemeteries are necessary and ponder just how well the living truly appreciate life before death. 

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