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Dead Stop: A Summer Road Trip To America's Strange And Notable Cemeteries A summer road trip visits strange, funny, historic and notable gravesites and cemeteries across America.
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Dead Stop

A summer road trip to strange, funny, historic and notable gravesites and cemeteries across America.
'Gatsby' Author Fitzgerald Rests In A D.C. Suburb

The grave of The Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald lies next to a major thoroughfare for commuters between Rockville, Md., and Washington, D.C. Jess Gitner/NPR hide caption

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Jess Gitner/NPR

'Gatsby' Author Fitzgerald Rests In A D.C. Suburb

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minn.; he's associated with that city, as well as Paris, the Riviera and New York. But his family had deep roots in Maryland, and he's buried in Rockville, next to a highway between strip malls and train tracks.

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A Resting Place For Hunting Hounds In Alabama

Franky Hatton and Cletis pose in front of the gravestones of Hatton's champion coon hounds at Coon Dog Cemetery near Cherokee, Ala. Debbie Elliott/NPR hide caption

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Debbie Elliott/NPR

A Resting Place For Hunting Hounds In Alabama

In order to be buried at Coon Dog Cemetery in northern Alabama, a dog must have a proven track record for hunting raccoons. It's a tradition that started 75 years ago with the special bond between a hunter and his dog, Troop.

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On Remote Island, The Dead Are Buried Far And Wide

Tiny Grindstone Island has only one official cemetery. Jackie Northam/NPR hide caption

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Jackie Northam/NPR

On Remote Island, The Dead Are Buried Far And Wide

With dense forests and rugged beauty, Grindstone Island is a favorite summer getaway for visitors — and some of them never want to leave. The island near the Canadian border has one official cemetery, but locals say that hundreds of people are buried there, in unofficial gravesites.

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Deaths Tell The Story Of Life In Old Hong Kong

For more than a decade, author Patricia Lim researched the 8,000 graves of the Hong Kong Cemetery, one of the city's oldest Christian cemeteries. Here, Lim stands at the grave of former Hong Kong police officer Richardson Barry Loxley Leslie. Last year, she rested on the grave while, unbeknownst to her at the time, she was having a mild heart attack. Louisa Lim/NPR hide caption

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Louisa Lim/NPR

Deaths Tell The Story Of Life In Old Hong Kong

The 8,000 graves of Happy Valley cemetery in Hong Kong tell the island's untold early history through the lives of pirates and prostitutes, missionaries and merchants. NPR correspondent Louisa Lim's mother devoted a decade to chronicling the last resting place of Hong Kong's earliest settlers.

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How Congressional Cemetery Got Its Name

Congressional Cemetery was founded in 1807, when Washington, D.C., was a new town. The 35-acre historic burial ground is located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, overlooking the Anacostia River. Blake Lipthratt/NPR hide caption

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Blake Lipthratt/NPR

How Congressional Cemetery Got Its Name

Back at the turn of the 19th century, Uriah Tracey was something of a trendsetter. The Connecticut senator was one of the first to fight in the Revolutionary War — and then one of the first to try to secede. And when he died in 1807, he became one of Congressional Cemetery's first occupants.

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A Wild Resting Place For Gunslingers And Cowboys

The Boot Hill cemetery in Tombstone, Ariz., is filled with the graves of men who met their end in the Wild West. While there are many such cemeteries in the Western U.S., Tombstone's is considered the most famous. Ted Robbins/NPR hide caption

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Ted Robbins/NPR

A Wild Resting Place For Gunslingers And Cowboys

Many residents of the Boot Hill cemetery in Tombstone, Ariz. — including gunfighters, miners, saloon keepers and train robbers — met untimely ends.

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Uncovering Secrets Buried At A Neglected Cemetery

Volunteers have been collecting grave markers like these and trying to figure out where they go. Maggie Martin/NPR hide caption

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Maggie Martin/NPR

Uncovering Secrets Buried At A Neglected Cemetery

KNAU News Talk - Arizona Public Radio

Lincoln Cemetery in Montgomery, Ala., was established in 1907 for African-Americans. But with no one in charge of the cemetery or keeping burial records, abuse, vandalism and neglect became rampant. And no one is sure where people are actually buried. Recently, volunteers began cleaning up and documenting the graves.

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In Warhol's Memory, Soup Cans And Coke Bottles

Fans leave all manner of mementos at Andy Warhol's grave site, near Pittsburgh. This spring, a local Warhol impersonator wrapped the grave stone in colorful paper for an entire month. Madelyn Roehrig hide caption

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Madelyn Roehrig

In Warhol's Memory, Soup Cans And Coke Bottles

While the cemetery that houses the artist's grave is conventional, the grave site itself is anything but. Fans and admirers regularly leave colorful mementos on his tombstone outside of Pittsburgh, and a local artist and Warhol historian even holds graveside birthday parties for the late pop art con.

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The Ghostly Grandeur Of A Desert Graveyard

A couple celebrates Dia de los Muertos at the Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas. Stacy Kendrick/Concordia Cemetery hide caption

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Stacy Kendrick/Concordia Cemetery

The Ghostly Grandeur Of A Desert Graveyard

Some 60,000 people have been buried in El Paso's Concordia Cemetery. The Texas graveyard is the final home to gunslingers, Mormon pioneers, Chinese immigrants, Mexican revolutionaries and Civil War veterans. Its desert setting is a venue for a popular Day of the Dead festival and nightly ghost tours.

The Ghostly Grandeur Of A Desert Graveyard

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Rediscovered Headstones Hold Clues To Calif. Quake

The Gilliam Cemetery, near Sebastopol, Calif., received its first grave in 1852. Many of its older headstones have disappeared over the years. Cindy Carpien/NPR hide caption

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Cindy Carpien/NPR

Rediscovered Headstones Hold Clues To Calif. Quake

California's Gilliam Cemetery appears to have more occupants as of late, but it's not only because new bodies have been buried there. Instead, old headstones that were claimed by the earth a century ago have been resurrected.

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A Muslim Cemetery Helps To Ease Funerals' Strain

At the Garden of Peace cemetery in Flint, Mich., Muslims are buried in accordance with traditional Islamic burial rites. Sami Yenigun/NPR hide caption

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Sami Yenigun/NPR

A Muslim Cemetery Helps To Ease Funerals' Strain

At the Garden of Peace cemetery in Flint, Michigan, Muslims are buried in accordance with traditional Islamic burial rites. After operating for only a couple of years, the cemetery has already welcomed a diverse group of American Muslims.

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Looking For Lady Day's Resting Place? Detour Ahead

Queen Esther stands in front of Billie Holiday's gravesite in New York City. Mito Habe-Evans/NPR hide caption

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Mito Habe-Evans/NPR

Looking For Lady Day's Resting Place? Detour Ahead

When Billie Holiday died on July 17, 1959, thousands of mourners attended her funeral at St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in New York City. But Holiday isn't buried in New York's Woodlawn Cemetery, near Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. Instead, she's "way, way, way out" in the Bronx.

Looking For Lady Day's Resting Place? Detour Ahead

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Beyond The Music In St. Louis Cemetery No. 2

Ernie K-Doe poses outside his Mother-In-Law Lounge during Jazz Fest in New Orleans in 2001. He died a few months later and was buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2. Pat Jolly/AP hide caption

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Pat Jolly/AP

Beyond The Music In St. Louis Cemetery No. 2

A New Orleans socialite donated space in her family's mausoleum in the city's famous St. Louis Cemetery No. 2. Now, the final resting place of a white, aristocratic family is also the eternal home of black musical royalty: Ernie "Emperor of the Universe" K-Doe and Earl King.

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The Trainer Who Created Four-Legged Stars

Hollywood animal trainer Frank Inn with Higgins, a shelter dog known for his starring roles in the 1960s TV series Petticoat Junction and the 1974 film Benji. Courtesy of Kathleen Copson hide caption

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Courtesy of Kathleen Copson

The Trainer Who Created Four-Legged Stars

Names like Gene Autry, Bette Davis and Buster Keaton draw tourists to a cemetery in the Hollywood Hills. But those legends of the silver screen also lie near a lesser-known man who made animals into Hollywood stars.

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The Curious Fate Of Stonewall Jackson's Arm

When Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson was accidentally shot by his own troops, his left arm was amputated and buried. But when the general died days later, he was not reunited with his lost limb.

The Curious Fate Of Stonewall Jackson's Arm

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'Bill W.' Day Celebrates Alcoholics Anonymous Hero

Visitors to Bill Wilson's grave in Vermont often leave sobriety chips atop his headstone, marking how long they have been continuously sober. Steve Zind/NPR hide caption

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Steve Zind/NPR

'Bill W.' Day Celebrates Alcoholics Anonymous Hero

Bill Wilson's simple grave in Vermont makes no mention of his work — co-founding Alcoholics Anonymous. But that doesn't stop people from visiting it, especially on the first Sunday in June. There, they celebrate Wilson, and his role in helping them change their lives.

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How Dorothy Parker Came To Rest In Baltimore

Author Dorothy Parker works at her typewriter in 1941. After her death at 73, Parker's ashes were stored in a file cabinet until being interred at NAACP headquarters in Baltimore. AP hide caption

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AP

How Dorothy Parker Came To Rest In Baltimore

Dorothy Parker considered New York City to be her beloved hometown: It's where she grew up, where she wrote many darkly humorous poems and short stories, and where she became famous. But today, Parker's ashes can be found not in New York, but in Baltimore.

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The Graveyard Of Shelved Ice Cream Flavors

Headstones in Ben and Jerry's "Flavor Graveyard" are dedicated to bygone favorites such as Oh Pear (1997), Makin' Whoopie Pie (2002-2003), and Urban Jumble (2000-2001). Click the enlargement for a detailed view. Ben and Jerry's hide caption

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Ben and Jerry's

The Graveyard Of Shelved Ice Cream Flavors

For our summer cemetery road trip series, we visit Ben and Jerry's "Flavor Graveyard" in Waterbury, Vt. Here, ice cream flavors that the company has killed off are memorialized. "You feel bad when the good ones just don't make it anymore," Ben and Jerry's Grand Poobah of Publicity, Sean Greenwood, tells host David Greene.

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