Tomb With a View Podcast

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Tomb With a View Podcast

A podcast about all things cemetery hosted by Liz Clappin

05/25/2026

A seemingly simple grave, but an incredibly important one in cemetery history. The grave of PFC Bill H.Terry, Jr. (February 23, 1949- July 3, 1969) at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama. Terry was drafted before graduating high school and quickly married his girlfriend before going to Vietnam. Before leaving he told his wife and parents he wanted to be buried at Elmwood Cemetery if he were killed, because even though Elmwood was all white it was close to where he grew up. Terry threw himself on a gr***de to protect his fellow soldiers and was killed in action. Elmwood refused him burial on the grounds of his race and he was buried at Shadow Lawn, the Black cemetery nearby. His family fought Elmwood in court, with the support and encouragement of their local priest and it finally made it to the northern Alabama district court, where it was ruled that cemetery plots, as private property were protected under the equal protection clause, and racially restrictive covenants were not lawful. Bill Terry Jr. was reburied in this plot at Elmwood on January 3, 1970, a Memorial Day story worth telling because his sacrifice and his family’s determination legally desegregated not just Elmwood but started the movement for cemeteries nationwide.

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05/14/2026

Had a wonderful time present with at the symposium on Atlanta’s potter’s fields. Indigent burial is still such an under discussed and understudied topic. So glad we had such an engaged and thoughtful audience that wanted to hear us talk about our weird cemetery adventures.

10/31/2025

Happy Halloween 🎃

Who is spookier than Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)? 🐦‍⬛

The two graves of Poe are both located at the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore, now on the University of Maryland Law School campus. His original grave in the rear of the churchyard by his grandfather was unmarked (the gravestone intended for the site was destroyed in a freak train derailment). The marker there now is a contemporary cenotaph.

In 1875 a campaign to raise money for a monument to honor Poe and he was exhumed and moved to a place of prominence in the front of the churchyard. The monument was created by George Frederick with Poe’s likeness sculpted by Adalbert Voick. It’s an enchanting little colonial churchyard normally closed, but there are moments when being able to talk cemetery aficionado to cemetery aficionado comes in handy. A short walk away is Poe’s Baltimore residence, now a tiny museum. Interestingly, Poe Homes, which surround it are one of the first public housing projects in the United States. Currently slated for demolition a portion of the homes will be retained as the new visitor center for the museum.

08/30/2025

I very much remember where I was watching the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, it was my first week of college, and I watched in the tiny television under my lifted bed in my dorm room at URI with my roommate Val, who was from Houston. I was devastated and riveted, I had seen many destructive hurricanes over the years in New England, but nothing like this. I didn’t visit New Orleans until many years after the storm. I lament that I didn’t see it before, because Katrina irrevocably changed the city. I visited the Katrina memorial when I was in New Orleans in 2021 for Thanksgiving. I can’t say the memorial, which contains the remains of some of the unidentified victims really evoked anything about the storm or its devastation. It is located next to the Charity Hospital cemetery, and in many ways feels equally forgotten. But at the end of the day perhaps the city itself, endlessly resilient, is the best memorial.

08/08/2025

.archive was posting about pet cemeteries today, and it just so happens this week that my old friend@pickards1 sent me a really cool pet grave this week. The grave in the Middle Smithfield Presbyterian Church cemetery in Monroe County, PA features the grave of seeing eye dog U-Ron (d. 1946) and his master Karl Kintner (d. 1968). Karl worked for the highway department and was blinded by blasting caps in an industrial accident in the 1940s, after that he and U-Ron lived with his brother and earned a living caning chairs. After a bit of research that night I sent the newspaper article I found with both their pictures. It really is the best kind of pet grave. 🦮

06/03/2025

Excited to announce that Ashlynn Rickord Werner and I have launched a national Cemetery Tourism Survey. We are collecting data from cemeteries across the country to understand the challenges and varied ways they approach tourism. We hope this data will help better inform historic cemeteries how to best use tourism as a tool for long term preservation. The survey takes approximately 7 minutes to complete and will be linked in my bio and stories!

04/27/2025

Scenes from this morning’s Yom HaShoah ceremony at Greenwood cemetery. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Memorial to the Six Million, designed by Holocaust survivor Benjamin Hirsch on the 20th anniversary of the liberation of the Jewish people from N**i oppression. The ceremony is so powerful because not only are there survivors there but their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren are all part of the perpetuation of these stories that continue to remind us in the present day of the importance of fighting oppression and retaining Hope even in difficult times, the Memorial to the Six Million is one of my favorite places in Atlanta. I think it’s an incredibly important piece of memorial architecture, the first of its kind in the United States and often overlooked. But it is such an important gathering place for families that had no other place to mourn and is very beautiful following the restoration that happened last year.

04/21/2025

Some of the exhibit on the history of papal funerals from the National Museum of Funerals History (one Catholic guy was really into the topic, and donated a bunch for this exhibit it’s one of the largest in the museum). Sad to see Pope Francis go, but…Very excited to watch the page try over the next few days.

03/01/2025

Far, far away, o’er the dream of years they hear the voice of the king and lo from each heart the shadow departs.

02/22/2025

When visiting Houston I had to make a trip out to nearby Sugarland to visit the burial place of the Sugarland 95. In 2018 during construction of the James Reese Career and Technical Center the remains of 94 men and one woman that were victims of the convict leasing system which enslaved them after incarceration for work in sugar can plantations. Thousands of mostly African Americans were trapped in this continuing system of slavery during the Jim Crow era. These 95 individuals, who died of exhaustion, malnutrition, abuse, and disease were largely forgotten despite locals who warned about the possibility of burials. Many still bore the chains they wore in life. In 2019 they were reburied marked only by simply numbers. The school is in active use, and while there is signage for the cemetery, on a Sunday morning it was as desolate as you can imagine. A permanent memorial is planned.

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