Bellefontaine Cemetery, STL

While we were in St. Louis last month J indulged me and we went to Bellefontaine Cemetery on Nov. 6. I really just wanted to see William S. Burroughs' grave - he was from St. Louis - but the cemetery office had a map and informative guidebook, the suggested route through the cemetery was easy to follow and made sense, and it was a lovely day, so we ended up spending at least a couple of hours. It was a gorgeous fall day and we saw a lot of interesting stuff.

I hadn't seen families gathered in a circle this way.


I love cemetery statuary; if I had more time on my hands I'd totally study up on it.


This is the top of Augustus Busch's tomb (of Anheuser-Busch)


William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame)




I love this kind of stuff.





at last:


Plain, simple, looks like most of the gravestones in my family, actually. For the record, William S. Burroughs the writer wasn't mentioned in the guidebook. His grandfather, William S. Burroughs, right next to him, was the advertised William S. Burroughs.

How's that for an epitaph?


Grandfather on the left, WSB the writer on the right.


WSB had at least nine lives, like Keith Richards, and for many of the same reasons. I can hear his voice clearly in my head - but not that of, say, my late father, whose voice I doubt I'd recognize. That's pop culture for ya.

It was a neat day at the cemetery, though; I'm glad we went. Lots more pictures in my flickr set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/m_lynch/sets/72157622796491582/
You can see lots of ladybugs dotting the statuary in many of 'em.