Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Step into history with Jennie and Dianne on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast! This week, they uncover the fascinating story of Pauline Cushman, a Union spy and actress who risked it all during the American Civil War. Joining them is livin…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. The story continues...Jennie, Dianne and Professor Jared Richman continue their discussion about the life and legacy of Mary Shelley. From the heartache of losing three of her four children in infancy, to the tragic drowning death of her husband Per…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This year's Beyond the Grave event honors Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but who was the woman behind the iconic novel? Born to radical parents Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, Mary Shelley navigated a life of intellectual fervor, passionate re…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This week on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast; while Dianne is away, Jennie welcomes a new guest, JoEllen Hundeland, to share her passion project, "Hillside Cemetery: Middletown, New York: Beyond the Graves". From school bus curiosity to …

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join The Ordinary, Extraordinary Cemetery podcast for a milestone episode - our 200th! For this special episode Dianne and Jennie welcome back returning guest Kristen Allen of Bloombridge, the cemetery flower delivery service, to share exciting upda…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne are excited to share Part 2 of our discussion with author Joy Giguere on "Pleasure Grounds of Death: The Rural Cemetery in Nineteenth-century America". They explore how the rural cemetery movement transformed the funeral industry, …

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This week on The Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery, Jennie and Dianne welcome Joy Giguere back to discuss her new book "Pleasure Grounds of Death: The Rural Cemetery in Nineteenth-century America". They chat about the rise of rural cemeteries in the U…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Saddle up, partners as Jennie and Dianne 'shoot' the breeze with Josh Taylor of the Wild West Extravaganza Podcast (and YouTube channel) while they pay their respects at the graveside of infamous outlaw Billy the Kid and his Ordinary Extraordinary l…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. In part 1 of "The Great Eiffel Tower Swindle" Jennie and Dianne share the humble beginnings of a man who became known as one of the world's greatest swindlers, Victor "The Count" Lustig; and left listeners hanging after recounting his notorious firs…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. As the world's eyes are on Paris for the Olympics, we're looking back at a different kind of champion - the con artist who sold the Eiffel Tower not once, but twice! We're shining a light on the Ordinary Extraordinary story of Victor Lustig who sold…

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, Jennie and Dianne pay a virtual visit to the graveside of a man who truly made a "splash" not only in America, but around the world. Join them as they relate the fascinating story of John Micha…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This week on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast Jennie and Dianne review their recent "gravestone preservation workshop" after attending the "48 State Tour" hosted by Atlas Preservation at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs, Colorado. T…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This week on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast Jennie and Dianne chat about Dianne's recent East Coast adventures in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Dianne shares about the many historical locations she visited including the Lizzie Borden …

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Happy Birthday America, or as Americans say, "Happy 4th of July!" Jennie and Dianne celebrate America's birthday with author and presidential historian Kurt Deion as he recounts his adventures in his book "Presidential Grave Hunter: One Kid's Quest …

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 chats with Sandra K. Doyle, a former deathcare industry professional turned author. Sandra's book, "MY LIFE AT THE CEMETERY: IT'S NOT AS DEAD AS YOU THINK", is a heartwarming a…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. “Cemeteries are for the living. They’re there for us, they’re there to comfort us, they’re there to educate us, they’re there to provide peaceful meditative places to contemplate our own mortality and our own life." This is what Tui Snider told Domi…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast as they delve into the hidden histories of Charleston, South Carolina's iconic graveyards. This week, they're joined by Patrick Harwood, a man who's spent his career uncovering th…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Ask and ye shall receive! This episode was made possible because several listeners reached out to this week's guest letting him know that Jennie and Dianne were eagerly hoping to speak with him. Get ready for a journey through history as Jennie and …

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne on the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast as they welcome Mel Bennett, founder of Life Forest cemetery, for a heartwarming and insightful conversation. Mel shares the personal story of how Life Forest was born out of her …

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 "he…

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 de…

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 duri…

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…

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: Pe…

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 …

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 epis…

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…

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 lead…

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 the…

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 J…

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, revealin…

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 Railro…

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 Lithua…

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 res…

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 …

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 …

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 secon…

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 Okla…

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 chi…

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 …

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 w…

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 …

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, an…

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…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Dive into a remarkable journey through time on the latest episode of "The Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery" podcast with Jennie and Dianne. This Thanksgiving, we're especially thankful for the wit and humor of Will Rogers. Join us as we celebrate the…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne share three captivating stories of headstones found in unusual places and how they were restored to the cemeteries where they belong. They begin with the story of a WWII veteran's headstone discovered in a backyard in St. Petersbur…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. In this episode Jennie and Dianne honor Veterans Day and celebrate National Native American Heritage Month along with guests Charlie Johnson and Connie Kellwood Pitt. Connie's father, Joe Hosteen Kellwood was one of the renowned Navajo Code Talkers …

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Happy belated 3rd anniversary to the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast! In this episode Jennie and Dianne take a stroll down memory lane, celebrating three years of stories and inspiring discussions. They reminisce about how far the podcast ha…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Join Jennie and Dianne for this very special Halloween edition of the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast. Grab your favorite warm beverage, turn the lights down low, and curl up with a cozy blanket as we delve into the enigmatic world of Bram S…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Just in time to help kick off the third annual Beyond the Grave: An Evening with Bram Stoker, Dianne and Jennie engage in a captivating conversation with Stanley Stepanic, an Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University …