[78-L] Billy Murray Tribute?!

[Gregg Kimball]

Attitudes toward such things are to some degree cultural.  The great 
nineteenth-century urban cemeteries (Mount Auburn, Greenwood, Laurel Hill, 
our own Hollywood in Richmond) were specifically designed for people to 
visit.  Each was created as a park-like oasis for reflective contemplation 
and even recreation. Most folks around here love to visit cemeteries, but, 
paraphrasing historian Douglas South Freeman, Virginians are Shintoists when 
it comes to ancestors.

Of course, there are other ways to honor someone and provide some historical 
context to boot.  I'm sure that Pennsylvania has a historic marker program, 
although I don't know the rules.  We've done several music-related markers 
for country blues players here in Virginia, as has Mississippi. I wrote one 
for Lomax's 1936 session at the Virginia State Farm, and I've been thinking 
about proposing one for the Edison recording session in 1909 of Polk Miller 
and the Old South Quartette.

Gregg Kimball


>I beg your pardon. I did not make an accusation, I expressed an opinion. 
>And I
> stand by it. The message was terse because I didn't feel like rambling on 
> about
> the morbidity of public visits to gravesites, which I find nauseating in 
> the
> extreme, whether they're to a little site or f*cking Graceland. The man 
> died,
> his family marked his burial place.
>
> dl
>