Archive for the 'A Graver’s Thoughts' Category

In Lieu of Flowers…

March 7th, 2008

On March 6, 2008 at approximately 8:45am MST, the mother of one of my dearest friends, Gaylene DePorter, lost her courageous battle against Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma; a rare form of thyroid cancer that spread, unchecked, into her liver.

Surrounded by her loved ones, Gaylene was aware of what was happening to her and before she slipped into a hepatic encephalopathy coma, she was able to tell them all that she loved them.

This feisty, vibrant, and strong woman will be laid to rest on Saturday, March 8th. In lieu of flowers, her family asks that donations be made, in her name, to either The American Cancer Society or The Lance Armstrong Foundation.

I, too, ask that you contribute - even if it is just a couple of dollars - to one or the other. In the past year, I have seen three people now lose their lives to cancer. First, Jenny Martin - entirely too young to see her life ended. Then, a co-worker, Kenneth Robichaux, that we all called "Robi"; a brilliant and charming man the world is much the less for losing. Now, my dear friend's mother - life snipped short in her prime, golden years.

I once vehemently decried to a close friend of mine, "I hate cancer!" He, an active member of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation ever since his wife had become a breast cancer survivor, said something that has stuck with me through the years. "Yes,", he answered, "but what are you doing about it?"

We can despise and rally against the awful disease that claims so many lives - young and old - or we can do something about it. A few dollars spared to the on-going research for a cure is the very least we can do in this battle that every one of us has a stake in. Cancer is something that affects everyone's life - whether you have had it, know someone who has, or watched a loved one suffer through it - all of us have come into contact with this deadly and terrible disease in one form or another.

Cancer is something we all fear and despise, yet shall we stand idly by while it claims the lives of children and adults at alarming rates? Or shall we do something - no matter how small - to take a stand against this deadly killer? Please, make a donation - do it for Jenny. Do it for Robi. Do it for Gaylene. Do it for all of the millions of lives lost, young and old, and the millions more whose lives were shattered by this disease. Just, please, do it.

How it All Began

February 12th, 2008

A question on a Flickr group, Graves, Tombs and Cemeteries, I recently joined asked how everyone's fascination with cemeteries began.

I didn't even have to think about my answer - I knew it immediately. I thought, for anyone that comes here and was wondering the same, I'd share the response I posted there:

It was the old Catholic tradition, known as All Saints' Day, of honoring deceased loved ones by cleaning their graves and bringing fresh flowers to them on or before November 1st that began my love of cemeteries.

My Cajun great-grandmother, Melina, and grandmother, Dorothy, had many family members buried out in Avoyelles Parish at Immaculate Conception Church Cemetery in Dupont and Mater Dolorosa Catholic Cemetery in Plaucheville. We - Melina, Dorothy, my mother, Pamela, myself, and my little sister, Amber - returned there every year on or before Nov. 1 to clean the graves and bring colorful chrysanthemums.

On Halloween itself, we would clean the graves and bring chrysanthemums to our family in the local cemetery in Maringouin, Louisiana which were mostly my grandfather, Riley's, people.

As the grown-ups worked with weeding, washing, and tidying up the headstones and around the family plots, we children would play for hours among the graves.

To me, a precocious, imaginative child, every headstone was a story and I spent much time imagining what the person had been like in life and what they had done with their time on Earth.

These were, also, quiet, peaceful, and contemplative times spent with three older generations of the women in my family as we honored our family gone on before us and are - to this today - some of my most cherished memories.

My love of cemeteries was borne of these times and has never diminished.

Zinker Hunting

February 3rd, 2008


A term that I never heard before coming to the Find A Grave forums was "zinker". I saw it mentioned it a few times there and poked around until I found it explained. It was quite an interesting tidbit of information and I quickly became yet another of the many "zinker hunters".

Gravers, if they know what to look for, are always on the lookout for a "zinker". The term is slang for whitish headstones, advertised as "white bronze" in their day, which are made of pure zinc. What makes these particular markers unique is that they were only manufactured for a short duration of time by a singular company - and later its subsidiaries - in the United States.

The allure of zinkers never caught on due to their cheap cost and fragile appearance. The result is unfortunate because zinkers, as anyone can tell you, appear to stand the test of time far more diligently than their stone, iron, limestone, granite, and even marble counterparts. A zinker over one hundred years old will often look as if it was minted only the day before.

It was in Bridgeport, Connecticut that the Monumental Bronze Company first began the manufacture of "white bronze" headstones - a cheaper alternative to traditional monuments; while a large and ornate white bronze marker could go for up to $5,000.00, a small, simple name and date plate could sell for as low as $2.00. The term "white bronze" was used to make the product more palatable to the buying public, though the monuments were pure zinc.

The company experimented with a number of different materials before deciding on zinc as an alternative to traditional materials that deteriorated over time. It was, as we now know, an excellent choice.

For whatever reason, mainly the idea that white bronze headstones were "cheap alternatives", the infallible markers never gained in popularity, and the company, founded in the 1870s, had folded by the early 1900s. There are few, if any, zinkers to be found made after the year of 1912; which adds to the delight in stumbling across one in your graving travels.

The hollow markers also have a reputation for being contraband containers or nifty hiding places for local farmers and townsfolk.  Prohibitionists were known to hide their bootleg liquor in local zinkers, and outlaws made use of the markers for hiding stolen goods or tools of the trade.  Farmers that lived near cemeteries were said to have, sometimes, also used the vacant space inside the larger zinkers for safely housing tools and equipment, where they never had to worry about them being found and stolen.

Taking the time to browse a gallery of zinkers, one will find they have stood the test of time amazingly well - even after a century of exposure to the elements, most zinkers are still as clear and legible as the day they were placed atop a freshly dug grave.

How to tell if you've found one of these rare headstones? A zinker can be told apart from its popular counterparts by its whitish or bluish-toned tint (zinc carbonate develops a bluish gray hue when exposed to the air), its sharp and new-like appearance, and the telltale seam that runs along its edges. Zinkers were shipped in pieces and fitted together by the funeral home or cemetery workers before being placed, hence the infamous seams (see photo above) that will always determine the authenticity of a true zinker. Zinkers are, also, hollow; a light rap on the headstone can usually prove the emptiness inside.

The rarity of these unique monuments makes finding one a treat. Here are the links to some zinker galleries compiled by fellow gravers and zinker hunters. Enjoy:

« Prev - Next »