Episodes

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 Dianne welcome Ed Breen, a descendant of the incorrigible Maurice Breen, whose story is a tribute to the American dream. You may remember Maurice's in...

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 desire to give her mother a better burial after a long and painful battle with dementia, and how this vision has grown into a revolutionary approach t...

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 "heroes of the Greatest Generation whom you have most likely never heard about. These extraordinary women didn't expect thanks and shied away from medals...

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 death in its wake in Fort Smith, Arkansas in January 1898. However, it is events that take place shortly after this tragedy that becomes a different sor...

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 during her exploration of Gilpin County's picturesque mountain cemeteries. Lynette sheds light on the hardy Cornish families who made the journey from Mic...

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 back to the 1800s when tin miners and their kin from Cornwall, Great Britain, made the Peninsula and its copper mines their stomping ground. As the c...

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: Personal Relationships with Cemeteries'. Loren, who is the editor, says the book is a "collection of over two dozen essays and more than two hundred pho...

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 True Love Story Discovered In A Century Old Mausoleum." Join them as they unravel the secrets behind the magnificent Rae Room tomb in Portland, Oregon...

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 episode, they discuss crucial topics like advocating for saving cemeteries, securing funding, leveraging social media for promotion, and the imperative mi...

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 the remarkable journey of Epoch Preservation, a leading gravestone conservation business based in Massachusetts. From humble beginnings to becoming p...

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 leading historian on Louise Sneed Hill, joins us to set the record straight and correct misconceptions about the woman who took charge of Denver's high s...

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 these sacred spaces, shedding light on the importance of honoring the memory of those laid to rest. In a time when our world is once more grappling with ...

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 Jewish immigrant cemeteries of New York. These cemeteries hold the final resting places of victims from tragic events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Fir...

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, revealing how the citizens of Gettysburg coped with the historic battle including the tragic account of Jenny Wade, the only civilian casualty of the battle. ...

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 Railroad. Maurice Breen was a man who worked hard but always made the best of life. He lived through plenty of hardships, but he didn’t let them prevent him...

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 Lithuanian immigrants who flocked to the area in the mid 1800s, it replaced the overflowing St. Henry's cemetery, and has become a crown jewel among Midwest...

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 resting place has not been forgotten in lovely Greenmount Cemetery in Durango, Colorado. Situated in the southwestern part of Colorado, Durango is surro...

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 1918 – a tragic event that claimed over 80 lives and left many injured. In the spirit of February and love-themed episodes, they explore the profound ...

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 inspiring story at Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery. True love knows no bounds, not even the challenges of the Civil War. Discover how James and Ol...

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 second person to reach 110 (after Geert Boomgaard), and the first to span three centuries (1792-1903). "Living to be over 100 is not just about time; it's...

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 Oklahoma territory of the 1890s. 🌵 Explore their journey, the challenges they faced, and the Ordinary Extraordinary legacy they left behind. 🐎 Whether you...

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 chief designer in 1942 but also managed an exclusive fashion line for over 20 department stores – a true pioneer working both in Tinseltown and for herse...

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 are joined by author Pamela McColl as they explore the charming friendship between literary giant Mark Twain and the remarkable Helen Keller. Discover...

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 wife, a testament to a life lived in simplicity and generosity. From a runaway at the tender age of six to becoming a successful businessman, Brady's l...