I’m at the cigar shop which was the unofficial rendezvous point for today’s trek. Smoking a cigar in typical form, in the cigar lounge. For some time now I’ve wanted to go pay my respects at the final resting place of Doris Eaton Travis who is buried in Guardian Angel cemetery situated off Rochester Rd, in Rochester, Michigan. I bet you’re wondering just who Doris Travis was? Well for starters she was a Ziegfield Follies girl. When she died in May of 2010 at the age of 106. She was the last surviving member of the Ziegfield Follies. Doris resides in eternal harmony in the Angel of Peace mausoleum on the second floor northwest side of the building, niche: B288
The Ziegfield Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in NYC. Doris had an esteemed career which lasted over 100 years. If your interested you might want to read “Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Surviving Star of the Ziegfeld Follies” by Lauren Redniss. I have not read the book so I can’t personally vouch for it. If your more inclined to do so you can read Travis’s online biography by clicking here.
As some of you may know I’m in school to become a post production film editor/film maker. One of the courses I’ll be taking in the coming weeks at school relates to podcasting. With that said and in honor of the 100th post on Graveside Stroll. I’m cordially announcing the thought of using those skills I learn from the podcasting course, to do a grave hunting related podcast on the blog.
Some of the ideas I’m considering for the podcast is to interview friends of mine who are involved in the grave hunting community around the country, who’ve written a book, have their own website, or are in someway uniquely involved with the hobby. Another thing I’m thinking about doing is utilizing the technology of a voice-recorder, so I could do discussions in the field on who I find, then upload the audio to my computer and then do a podcast from that.
I figure it would add another dimension to the blog, and make things a little more user-friendly and above all interesting. The podcast feature would coincide with the grave hunting documentaries I create, and post on You Tube and the blog. For now I plan on doing the podcast once a month, until I build a content base, and get the hang of things.
As I’m sitting on this fancy leather couch in the confines, of the elegantly decorated cigar lounge, puffing on a cigar, staring down the deer head on the wall in front of me. I thought I’d bring you all up to speed on some things. Well for starters its been a known fact for some time now about an utmost desire of mine to visit Los Angeles, California. Well due to a recent surge in my financial state as I’d like to say. I’ve been fortunate enough to fund a trip to LA.
I’ll be visiting Los Angeles the last week in May up into the first weekend in June. On the agenda for that week of grave hunting I plan on doing. I doubt I’ll be able to check out all the bone yard hot spots while I’m in town. I’m gonna try to pack in as much grave hunting as I can handle during the week and a half I’ll be there. I’ve already reserved a rental car w/navigation system, and I already procured round trip airfare. I’ll be staying with some relatives who live in Anaheim.
This trip will be an adventure because I’ve never been to LA. So I’ll be taking the days in stride, grave hunting, until there are painful blisters on my feet. So that’s whats up for now. As with earlier “gravecations” I’ve been on most notably Chicago, and beyond. I’ll no doubt be giving you my loyal viewers all 20 of you LOL daily updates on the days finds, plus my thoughts and what not on the bone yards I visit.
As I’m sitting on this fancy leather couch in the confines, of the elegantly decorated cigar lounge, puffing on a cigar, staring down the deer head on the wall in front of me. I thought I’d bring you all up to speed on some things. Well for starters its been a known fact for some time now about an utmost desire of mine to visit Los Angeles, California. Well due to a recent surge in my financial state as I’d like to say. I’ve been fortunate enough to fund a trip to LA.
I’ll be visiting Los Angeles the last week in May up into the first weekend in June. On the agenda for that week of grave hunting I plan on doing. I doubt I’ll be able to check out all the bone yard hot spots while I’m in town. I’m gonna try to pack in as much grave hunting as I can handle during the week and a half I’ll be there. I’ve already reserved a rental car w/navigation system, and I already procured round trip airfare. I’ll be staying with some relatives who live in Anaheim.
This trip will be an adventure because I’ve never been to LA. So I’ll be taking the days in stride, grave hunting, until there are painful blisters on my feet. So that’s whats up for now. As with earlier “gravecations” I’ve been on most notably Chicago, and beyond. I’ll no doubt be giving you my loyal viewers all 20 of you LOL daily updates on the days finds, plus my thoughts and what not on the bone yards I visit.
Being that it’s the middle of Winter in Michigan. I rarely find my self doing any grave hunting, cemetery exploration, and things of that nature, this time of year. With over a foot of snow canvasing the ground on some days. It’s literally impossible to do a successful hunt, without freezing my (expletive) off. I’m not saying I’m absolutely insane enough to do a little graving with a few inches or more of snow on the ground (which I totally am). I’m just saying I usually pass on the adventure because I really don’t feel like freezing my (expletive) off.
Now keep in mind, the weather in Michigan for the most part is unpredictable. We could get 2 ft of snow one day in the middle of January, February, or March, then the next day the sun would be out, with high a temperature of 50+ degrees. As in the case of the unusually mild temps for this time of year over the past week. We had a high of about 47 degrees today. The day before on Thursday it got into the 50s. And being that I’ve suffered from a major case of cabin fever over the past few months. I decided to do the right thing to cure the fever and hit the cemeteries. Which leads me to this blog post.
Yesterday being that it was in the high 40s with no snow, besides the ground being a soggy, muddy mess. I decided to do a little cemetery exploration. As luck would have it a friend of mine from my high school days the enchantingly beautiful, Beth came along for the days adventure. I love it when friends, tag along especially someone as beautiful as Beth is. Because it gives me a chance to teach them a little local history, and give them a hands on experience on what I do when I go “grave hunting”. Who knows when I take newbies/friends with me the hobby might spark their interest, and they might become a dedicated graver like I am.
We didn’t have any high priority goals yesterday per say. We merely just drove around Elmwood & Mt. Elliott for a while, then got out of the car at random times and wandered aimlessly around the area we were in. In the process of strolling around the cemetery Beth, and I found a few gravesites, of somewhat notability. The first gravesite we found was of Russell Alger, who resides in the Alger family mausoleum near the front of the cemetery. Alger served as Governor of Michigan at one time, along with serving in the American Civil War, at the war’s end he was promoted to the officer rank of Major General.
Another gravesite Beth, and I found was of Breveted Brigadier General Grover Wormer. He served honorably during the war, and took part in the pursuit of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan. Unfortunately for Gen. Wormer he died several days before his sixtieth wedding anniversary.
Moving along, while Beth, and I were at Elmwood we stumbled upon the gravesite of Winifred Lyster. I’ve got no idea who she was as for some surprisingly unknown reason she’s not mentioned in the charming and informative book I have on Elmwood cemetery. But apparently she wrote the lyrics to the Civil War era song “Michigan My Michigan” which according to online sources is a tribute to the soldiers from Michigan who fought in the American Civil War. If your interested I’ve posted a video I found on You Tube with a photo montage, complimented with the chorus of the song.
Rounding off the day before heading to Mt. Elliott where we just photographed some random shots. Beth and I found the gravesite of Albert Molitor. He was the illegitimate son of William I of Wurttemberg , he also helped found Rogers City in northern Michigan. To be honest I’ve documented the finding of Albert’s gravesite in the past. But for historical purposes and considering that Beth is a newbie at grave hunting. I pointed out several gravesites we came across who I knew the background of and explained to her who the people were.
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