Grave Matters -- The Northwest From The Ground Up

I SOMETIMES THINK of them as Permanent Residents. And getting to know them is an interesting - if slightly macabre - pastime.

They're the inhabitants of Puget Sound cemeteries, the folks who aren't going anywhere any time soon. You can visit them at your leisure, on a sunny morning or an overcast afternoon. The stone figures and monuments in the old cemeteries seem to stand in their graves, as if hearing a sudden noise.

Wander through the peaceful acres. Read the names and epitaphs. Digest the flowery prose. Shed a tear for those taken prematurely from their loved ones. Chances are you'll be slightly wiser when you leave, having acquired a healthy sense of mortality and a smattering of history.

Several years ago, a bunch of my friends (weird but wonderful folks) decided on a cemetery field trip. We started early on a fall Saturday, fortified by a hearty brunch of eggs scrambled with green chiles, hot biscuits and strong coffee. In these pages are highlights from that tour and subsequent trips to Puget Sound graveyards:

# Dr. David Maynard. The grave of the likable rogue credited with inventing commercial Seattle is easy to find. Look for the tallest tree, a California redwood, at Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill. Doc Maynard's grave is the badly weathered tombstone beside the tree. Maynard, who died March 13, 1873, was the second Seattleite interred at Lake View, a cemetery he helped establish. Next to Maynard's grave is that of Catherine Maynard, one of his two wives (Doc was a little careless about legal niceties). Catherine's epitaph: "She did what she could."

# Chief Seattle Died June 7, 1866 The final resting place of Sealth (pronounced SEE-alth and sometimes mispronounced SEE-attle), the Duwamish chief for whom the city was named, is in the Native American cemetery in Suquamish. (Take the ferry to Winslow, drive north on state Route 305 to Agate Pass and on to Suquamish.) Some think of Sealth as a great chieftain, a handsome man revered for his prophetic words. Others say Sealth was merely a shrewd subchief who consorted with the notorious Doc Maynard. Whatever the truth (and it may lie somewhere between), the chief died of a heart attack, and He may or may not be resting peacefully. Native tradition has it that the dead turn in their graves each time their names are mentioned.

# Mary Ann Conklin. The woman dubbed "Mother Damnable" for her earthy expletives operated one of Seattle's most successful early enterprises, a Southern-style mansion on Front Street (now First Avenue.) It served as hotel, courtroom and pleasure palace. When Conklin died in the 1860s, she was quietly buried in a pioneer cemetery at Denny Way and Dexter Avenue, where Denny Park stands today. She became the stuff of legends in the 1870s when all 223 pioneer graves were transferred to Lake View Cemetery. The gravediggers hired to transport the remains claimed Conklin had "turned to stone" after burial. How this happened, no one could say. (Mineral deposits?) The gravediggers swore it took six strong men to lift her coffin and load it onto the horse-drawn wagon for a final move, the trip up the hill to Lake View.

# Ivar Haglund. Died January 30, 1985 Where is the grave of Ivar? The guitar-toting founder of Ivar's Acres of Clams once observed, "A clam is as silent as an oyster. He needs someone to sing his song." Those who know where Ivar rests aren't talking. That's why this mournful clam, right, is looking unsuccessfully for Ivar's headstone. But rumor has it that Ivar was cremated and now rests somewhere off Alki Beach. He's keeping clam.

# Louisa Boren Denny. Look for the grave of the "sweet briar bride," one of the plucky Seattle pioneers, in the Denny family plot at Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery on Aurora Avenue North in North Seattle. A natural granite boulder, inscribed with the words "Denny Pioneer Family," marks the family's gravesites. Nearby, there's a special tribute to Louisa, fashioned from cuttings taken from roses she planted. Think also of Louisa when you pull dandelions from the lawn. She brought dandelion seeds from the Midwest and scattered them here to remind her of home.

# Princess Angeline. Chief Seattle's daughter, who spent most of her life in a shack on the Seattle waterfront, is spending eternity close to her friend and mentor, pioneer sawmill owner Henry Yesler. Both are buried at Lake View Cemetery not far from Doc Maynard's grave (see cover). When she died, Angeline was wrapped in an Indian blanket and placed in a coffin shaped like a canoe. The granite stone that marks her resting place was paid for with pennies contributed by Seattle schoolchildren at the turn of the century.

# Bruce Lee Died July 20, 1973 More than 50,000 Permanent Residents rest beyond the wrought-iron fence at Lake View Cemetery. But the most-visited grave is that of Bruce Lee, the Seattle man known for his kung fu adventure movies. Death, at age 32, was blamed on an allergic reaction to a prescription painkiller. At the time, Lee was at the peak of his career; today he is still sought out as "the Babe Ruth of martial arts." His red-marble headstone, inset with a Hong Kong-made ceramic picture, attracts mourners from all over the world.

# Buck. When Irving Wadleigh's favorite horse died in 1884, he saw nothing wrong with burying old Buck in Lake View Cemetery. That might have been that. But in 1901, Wadleigh drew attention to Buck by raising a granite monolith to Buck's memory. It wasn't long before citizens persuaded the City Council to pass a law decreeing cemeteries for humans only. Buck had to be moved.

# Jimi Hendrix Died Sept. 18, 1970 It was more than 20 years ago that the Seattle-born, Garfield-educated rock 'n' roll star was buried in Renton's Greenwood Cemetery. But fans continue to make pilgrimages to his grave, some of them aware that the guitar to the left of the epitaph is a right-handed guitar, although Jimi played left-handed. Last June, Q, the classy English music magazine, ran a 13-page spread on Jimi, and there's been talk of a Jimi Hendrix Museum at the Seattle Center.

# Rucker's Tomb. In Everett when you reached a certain age - too old for filling up a sack with candy - there was only one thing you could do on Halloween. According to Times reporter and Everett apologist Steve Johnston, you had to Climb the Tomb. The name on the Tomb is "Rucker." The first Ruckers - a pair of brothers, Bethel and Wyatt - came to Everett from California in 1889 and got into land development. Today some of Everett's classiest homes are on Rucker Drive.

But back to the Tomb, which stands in Everett Cemetery. Johnston says you rode your bike to the graveyard. You peered into the doorway of the Tomb and imagined ghostly fingers creeping around the corner of the stone.

You climbed the mossy granite, avoiding mummy hands. When you reached the top, the final ritual was to relieve yourself. (This, obviously, is a male-only rite of passage.)

# Milton V. Price Jr. Three-year-old Milton, son of a black couple, Milton and Bernice Price, drowned in a swimming-pool accident Aug. 18, 1957. Bernice Price called to make arrangements for her son's burial in the Babyland section of Washelli-Evergreen Cemetery. But the next day, she went to the cemetery and was told Babyland was reserved for Caucasians only. A salesman instead tried to sell her a plot in Resthaven Memorial Cemetery.

The Prices filed suit against the cemetery, but - despite protests from churches and attempts to pass civil-rights legislation - the couple lost an appeal to the state Supreme Court in 1960. (Lawyers for the cemetery successfully argued that it was barred from selling a plot to the Prices because the former owners had sold 5,000 plots limiting burials to Caucasians.) The body of 3-year-old Milton finally was laid to rest at Lake View Cemetery.

Jean Godden's column appears in the Seattle Times' Northwest section Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Harley Soltes is the Pacific staff photographer. Photographs were hand-tinted by Fred Birchman, Times news artist.