Things I Have Learned - Gravestone Tourists

By Bill D. Ward

Today’s Wisdom: “Every life holds an epic tale, even if no one alive remembers it.”

Greg Melville

A good friend of mine is the caretaker at our town’s cemetery. He tells me that he occasionally runs into people who are touring cemeteries collecting gravestone encounters of famous people.

Do we all need to up our game a bit on our monument design?

We have two famous people in our cemetery, but most tourists are there for one special one. Hildred Olson was a little person in the Munchkin cast in the Wizard of Oz. She died in 1957, long before the movie found popularity. Hildred had no idea she was famous, or would be.

Her original stone was mostly lost below the grass line and had nothing but her name and years of life. It was not worthy of a famous person.

Our local historical society fixed that problem, designing and funding a new monument, complete with Hildred in her Munchkin costume and standing under the Munchkin’s star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She now has a monument worthy of her own fame.

I find the whole thing a little disconcerting. She never really did anything spectacular. All she did was join a vaudeville troupe, about the only career open to her, then show up in Culver City for two months of standing and dancing on a sound stage.

Most of us share the type of non-famous life that Hildred lived. But who knows? Might we someday be famous for something we did in our past that just hasn’t been recognized yet? Might one of our kids get famous so that people come to our town looking for the grave of ‘the mother of…?’ Do we all need to up our game a bit on our monument design?

I have been trying to think of something tourism worthy to put on my monument. I like “Gone to Another Meeting,” but that one is taken by the other famous guy in our cemetery. I’m still working on other ideas.

My encouragement is to put some literary and artistic thought into your own monument design. Most of you will be wasting your time, but a lucky few might just be handing your local Chamber of Commerce or tourism people a gift. You know, maybe something like a rotating circle with the quote, “Buffering, check back later.” I’m just sayin’.