The Ordinary, Extraordinary Cemetery

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Just in time for Memorial Day, Jennie and Dianne are honored to be joined in this episode by Major General Mari K. Eder (U.S. Army, Retired) to discuss her amazing book, 'The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line'. These Ordinary Extraordinary women are "heroes of the Greatest Generation...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. In this episode of the ordinary extraordinary cemetery podcast, Jennie and Dianne are joined by returning guest Hugh Yemen as he shares a tale that in many ways is truly stranger than fiction! The story begins with a tornado that left tragedy and death in its wake in Fort Smith, Arkansas in Jan...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne as they continue their conversation with Lynette Webber, Cousin Jennies: Cornish Women of Mining Country Cemeteries, probing deeper into the surprising connections she unearthed between the graves of Colorado and Michigan during her exploration of Gilpin County's pic...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This week, buckle up for part one of a riveting tale as Jennie and Dianne team up with Lynette Webber, an expert who has dedicated years to researching the cemeteries and their residents in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. Picture this: a time machine back to the 1800s when tin miners and th...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. "I hope the adventures in this book inspire you to explore a cemetery. It’s good for the cemetery—and I promise it will be good for you." This is how Loren Rhoads welcomes readers to indulge in her latest cemetery book, 'Death's Garden Revisited: Personal Relationships with...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Get ready for an unforgettable journey into the heart of mystery and romance with Jennie and Dianne in the latest episode of the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery Podcast featuring author Roy Widing and his captivating book "Whispers From The Tomb: A True Love Story Discovered In A Century O...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Dianne and Jennie are thrilled to continue their conversation with Rachel Meyer from Epoch Preservation. Join them for part 2 of an insightful two-part series delving into the fascinating world of cemetery conservation and preservation. In this episode, they discuss crucial topics like advocati...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Dianne and Jennie are thrilled to welcome Rachel Meyer from Epoch Preservation as this week's special guest. Join them for part 1 of an insightful two-part series delving into the fascinating world of cemetery conservation and preservation. Discover the remarkable journey of Epoch Preserva...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne on an enlightening journey through history with the author of "The Queen of Denver: Louise Sneed Hill and the Emergence of Modern High Society" Shelby Carr.  In this captivating follow-up to Episode 127, Shelby, who is the leading historian on Louise Sneed Hill,...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne, along with returning guest Avrohom Krauss, as they continue their exploration into the world of Ordinary Extraordinary Jewish cemetery sites. This week, they delve deeper into the topics of desecration and preservation of these sacred spaces, shedding light on the import...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. In this episode of the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery, Jennie and Dianne, along with special guest Avrohom Krauss, an educator, genealogist, and speaker specializing in Jewish resources and cemetery research, delve into the  Ordinary Extraordinary Jewish immigrant cemeteries of New York. These...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne dive into history with special guest Tim Smith, the Director of Education for the Adams County Historical Society and town historian at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This week, Tim unfolds captivating tales of the battlefield, revealing how the citizens of Gettysburg coped with th...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne return to Dayton Ohio's Calvary Cemetery, this time to visit the grave of Maurice Breen, an Irish immigrant who spent some of his early years in America helping those who were enslaved to escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Maurice Breen was a man who worked ha...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This episode is part one of at least two episodes covering one of Dayton, Ohio's largest green spaces, Calvary Cemetery. Founded in 1872 to accommodate three Catholic parishes that grew out of the German, Irish, Polish, Hungarian, Italian and Lithuanian immigrants who flocked to the area i...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Love is in the air this week as Jennie and Dianne share the story of a woman who led, shall we say, an alternative life as madam Bessie Rivers, and despite her unconventional  path, found love and respect among many in her community and her final resting place has not been forgotten in lovely G...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne relate a gripping yet heart-wrenching chapter of circus history that led to the first burials at Showmen's Rest in Chicago's beautiful Woodlawn Memorial Park. Listen in as they spotlight the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus train wreck of 1918 – a tragic event that claimed o...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne delve into the remarkable tale of James and Olivia Tate, enslaved in Georgia prior to the American civil war but united by love. This February, they kick off a month-long celebration of love and honor Black History with the Tate's inspiring story at Atlanta's histori...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne as they unravel the remarkable life of Margaret Ann Harvey Neve in this episode of the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery Podcast! This latest episode delves into the story of the first recorded female supercentenarian, the second person to reach 110 (after Geert Boomgaard),...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne ride into the Wild West in this latest podcast episode! 🤠 Together they cover the unique story of Cattle Annie and Little Britches, two adventurous young girls who defied the norms of their time by becoming outlaws in the vast Oklahoma territory of the 1890s. 🌵 Explore their...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne uncover the remark ble legacy of Irene Lentz – a trailblazing fashion designer turned Hollywood costume innovator during the 1930s and 40s. Delve into the Ord nary Extraordinary story of how she not only took the reins as MGM's chief designer in 1942 but also managed an e...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. As we bid farewell to 2023, the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery Podcast team wishes you a Happy New Year! Don't miss this final episode of the year, weaving history, literature, and friendship into an Ordinary Extraordinary story. Jennie and Dianne are joined by author Pamela McColl as the...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Embark on a heartfelt yuletide journey with Jennie and Dianne as they uncover the remarkable story of James J. Brady at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan. Despite humble beginnings, Brady's life is etched in the unadorned markers beside his wife, a testament to a life lived in simpl...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne as they unravel a tale of light from darkness in Landsberg am Lech, Germany. From the city's historical significance to the Jüdischer Friedhof,  a small Jewish cemetery containing about 600 victims of the Nazi terror that were killed in one of the nearby concentratio...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Uncover the rich history of the second oldest rural cemetery in America on "The Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery" podcast! Join Jennie and Dianne alongside Laurel Hill Cemetery's President & CEO Nancy Goldenberg, Arboretum Manager Aaron Greenberg, and Volunteer & Tour Guid...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email.  On this episode of "The Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery" join Jennie as she journeys to the picturesque Toledo Cemetery in Lincoln County, Oregon to discover the history of this charming seven-acre resting place, founded in the 1880s by the generous donation of a local citizen. Uncov...