Coming to a “Dead Stop”

NPR’s Morning Edition heads out on a special summer road trip with “Dead Stop: Famous Final Resting Places of Americans Great and Small.” The series takes listeners to strange, funny, historic or otherwise notable gravesites and cemeteries around the U.S., touching on American history, biography, art, religion and land use along the way. “Dead Stop” runs throughout the summer.

This series also includes a listener callout: Help NPR’s Morning Edition build a Google map of cool graveyards and tombstones -- post your favorite photos on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #NPRDeadStop and they’ll be featured on an interactive “Dead Stop” map.

Tune in fpr NPR’s Morning Edition, weekdays starting at 5:00 a.m. on WCVE Public Radio.

Week of June 18: Gilliam Cemetary, Sonoma County, CA
In one of Sonoma County, California’s oldest cemeteries, a volunteer caretaker is unearthing headstones that were toppled and then buried in the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Now descendents of pioneer families are finding their family members’ graves, as NPR’s Cindy Carpien reports.

Week of June 25: Ernie K. Doe and Earl King
New Orleans musicians Ernie K. Doe and Earl King died two years apart but both ended up neighbors in death when a prominent New Orleans socialite donated her space in her family’s masoleum at St. Louis No. 2 cemetery for their remains. NPR’s Gwen Thompkins reports.

Week of July 17: Billie Holiday
NPR’s Elizabeth Blair reports on the final resting place of singer Billie Holiday.

Week of July 17: Marilyn Monroe
NPR’s Nina Gregory reports on the final resting place of actress Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood.

Week of August 6: Andy Warhol
Travis Larchuk reports on the final resting place of artist Andy Warhol in Pittsburgh.

TBD: Stonewall Jackson’s Arm
NPR correspondent Ramona Martinez travels to the site of an unlikely Civil War memorial -- the tombstone of Stonewall Jackson’s arm. The Confederate general lost his left arm in the battle of Chancellorsville, Va.; after doctors amputated it, an Army chaplain arranged to have it buried in his family’s cemetery nearby. Jackson himself died a week later; his remains were returned to his family and buried separately.

TBD: Muslim Cemetery of Flint, MI
NPR’s Sami Yenigun profiles Garden of Peace, the first Muslim cemetery in Flint, MI. It was organized in 2010 to comply with religious tenets, and allows the deceased to face towards Mecca.

And more stories to come!