This story led off in the Deseret News in Salt Lake City today. Pretty good…
SALT LAKE CITY — From the trite (“gone fishin’ ” and “rest in peace”) to the cute to the sentimental to the absolutely bizarre, epitaphs on graves in the Salt Lake City Cemetery combine to create a wide spectrum of voices from the beyond.
How about “Victim of the beast 666” inscribed on one Salt Lake cemetery headstone?
“Forever dancing, passionately in love” and “A true love story has no ending” are the inscriptions on two different husband-wife gravestones.
“Epitaphs are making a comeback,” said Mike Ellerbeck of Salt Lake Monument, 186 N St.
His favorites are the inscriptions that show some humor. “I’d rather be in Paris” and “Trade me places” are among those he’s created.
As one of the few certified memorialists with the Monument Builders of North America in the area, he’s also made some strange epitaphs. For example, “He’s dead, Jim” was one he inscribed on a headstone for one woman, whose late husband, Jim, was a big “Star Trek” fan.
As baby boomers continue to enter the memorial market, Ellerbeck said a lot of people these days want to design their own headstone.
The Salt Lake City Cemetery displays a huge variety in its stone monument work, too. From the routinely flat and routine square markers, to round markers, pinnacle-shaped, heart-shaped to eroded monuments — there’s a staggering range.
Read the full article in the May 31, 2009 edition of the Deseret News.
