The more than 45 stories serve as history lesson and travelogue to the more than 60 cemeteries, chronicling the resting places of famous people and the tragedies borne by ordinary people. The compilation reaffirms our fascination with cemeteries and their status as tourist attractions. People visit cemeteries in large numbers. Evidence of crowd control abounds from signs directing traffic to the grave marker of President Clinton's mother in Hope, Arkansas, and the large steel cage protecting the tombstone of Billy the Kid at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, to the monument in New Orleans made famous by the movie Easy Rider and Bonnie Parker's coveted headstone in Dallas, relocated to prevent theft. The stories also demonstrate that the reasons people flock to cemeteries are as varied as the people interred there.
Cemeteries hold some of the most interesting sculpture and folk art in our region.
Unusual graves include the Sturrock Cemetery in Tyler County, Texas, started when the family arrived from Scotland in the 1830s. The dozen sandstone crypts are said to resemble the style of the family's houses in Scotland. The graves at the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation in Polk County, Texas, are adorned with decorations such as sea shells, stones, skillets, and teddy bears. New Orleans cemeteries are a tourist industry by themselves, featured in movies and Anne Rice novels. The oldest standing cemetery is St. Louis No. 1, on the edge of the French Quarter.