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SPIRITED STORYTELLING
‘Talking Tombstones XIV: Over My
Dead Body’ brings the dead back to life
“I really enjoyed that character,” Hens-
By HEATHER DOUGLAS
FOR COAST WEEKEND
T
he spirits of dearly departed lo-
cals will rise for an afternoon of
fun history during the 14th annual
“Talking Tombstones,” presented by the
Clatsop County Historical Society. The free
event takes place 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct.
29, at Greenwood Cemetery (91569 State
Highway 202) in Astoria.
The Historical Society recruits talented
community members to prepare vignettes
of ten characters each year. The actors stand
by the gravestone of the person they have
preparation, that person will be brought
back to life in front of small groups who
rotate through the cemetery.
“One thing I love about this program is
that cemeteries are fi lled with people, and
those people have stories; unless you make
a point of telling these stories they will
be forgotten,” said McAndrew Burns, the
Historical Society’s executive director. “It’s
a way to remind people.”
From Kansas to Astoria
Burns was inspired to create Talking
Tombstones after stopping in the small
town of Caldwell, Kansas, years ago and
witnessing a group of locals give a similar
performance.
“A lot of small towns do variations on
this concept. There was no reason to stop
in this little town except for their cemetery
program,” Burns said. “It was just an amaz-
ing way to bring history to life.”
Once upon a time, cemeteries did not
hold the same cryptic power they do now.
They were parks for picnicking and visiting
loved ones. It was a place of remembrance,
rather than a place where ghosts were imag-
David Reid — the lead adviser at the
Clatsop Community College — has partici-
pated in Talking Tombstones for 11 years.
“You have to make it interesting,” Reid
said of historical interpretation, “but some-
Reid’s performances have run the gam-
ut, he said.
“You have to imagine a person’s whole
life distilled down into a fi ve-minute talk,”
PHOTOS BY JOSHUA BESSEX
ABOVE: David Reid portrays a character from Clatsop County’s past at Talking Tomb-
stones in 2015. TOP: The Grim Reaper made a special guest appearance at the 2015
Talking Tombstones, held at Warrenton’s Clatsop Plains Pioneer Cemetery.
ined to haunt or terrorize.
Burns remembered that, “after we did
our fi rst Talking Tombstones, we got lots of
letters and emails. One said: ‘I walk my dog
through the cemetery every day and have
never thought to stop and read the stones;
now I read them and try to get a picture of
who that person might have been.’”
Stars of the show
Matt Hensley, a history teacher of 30
years and one of the founders of Seaside
Salt Works, has been a key player in
Talking Tombstones since the fi rst event
was held at Hilltop Cemetery in Astoria in
2004.
Hensley’s fi rst character was a scoun-
drel lawyer from the 1900s who cheated
fi shermen out of money and was eventually
gunned down by a disgruntled fi sherman.
“We have some interesting folks in
Astoria’s history,” Hensley said, laughing.
“I also once portrayed a man that everyone
thought murdered his fi rst wife so that he
could marry her sister.”
Another unforgettable character Hensley
portrayed was a Clatsop County deputy
sheriff from the early 1900s. The man
accompanied the sheriff to arrest a man in
Seaside who had committed some crimes,
and when the man answered the door to
fi nd the sheriff and deputy outside, a gun
was pulled. The deputy stepped in front of
the sheriff attempting to save his life. Both
sheriff and deputy were killed in the line of
duty.
back and the good feedback from people.
I’m not an actor, but I get to play an actor
for a few hours on Sunday afternoon once
Spirits in waiting
Repeat attendance at Talking Tomb-
stones has become the norm.
One question Burns asks at the begin-
ning of each event: How many of you have
come before? “Invariably over half of the
hands go up,” he said.
When it’s time again to plan next year’s
event, Burns and his team begin another
round of research. “We usually start with a
murder victim, a prostitute and a grieving
mother, and go from there,” he quipped.
Hensley, in fact, is already thinking
about next year.
“Mac showed me a fl at stone grave
marker in a cemetery last year that said
‘bear hunter extraordinaire.’ If we go back
to that cemetery again someday, I told
him this is the person I want to portray
next.” CW