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.
There's a unique sign-shaped upright marker that points to two graves along the cemetery's northwest side. From Roman pillars and large vaults, to angels and Christ statues, the cemetery features a wide variety of monument types.
Undoubtedly, the strangest headstone inscription has to be "Victim of the beast 666." Lilly E. Gray died on Nov. 14, 1968, at the age of 77. Her headstone has become legend on the Internet, with more than 2,000 sites now speculating on the "why" behind that devilish reference to the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
Richelle Hawks on Ufo .com posted on May 24, 2009, what appears to be the best explanation of the bizarre inscription — that the surviving husband was not only eccentric but somehow blamed police for his wife's death, even though her official newspaper obituary stated she died of natural causes in a Salt Lake hospital.
(This unusual grave is located at X1 169 4E. That's the lot in the extreme southeast corner of the cemetery. From the east in that X1 lot, it is in the 14th row that begins with the "Myrtis Sealy Dorton" marker and then is the 26th grave northward in that row.)
Access Hawks' research at: www.ufodigest.com/news/0509/666.php
Two other examinations are found at: www.bachelorsgrove.com/bgf/index.php?action=printpage;topic=715.0 and www.freewebs.com/giznbas/findinglilly.htm.
Reportedly the largest city-owned cemetery in the nation, the 250-acre Salt Lake City Cemetery has approximately 116,000 burial sites. Just trying to walk around it for three hours proves how massive it is as even that lengthy of a visit only yields a sampling of what's there. The cemetery is so large it has its own extensive street numbering system.
State archivist Jeff Johnson, who is an expert on the cemetery, told the Deseret News a few years ago that cemetery officials often refer to it as the nation's largest municipal graveyard and that he's never found any firm reference to prove or disprove that claim.
Wikipedia and Nationmaster.com both currently claim Salt Lake is indeed the largest city-operated cemetery. Larger burial grounds include Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia at more than 624 acres and the nonprofit-run Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Ind., 491 acres.
Adjacent cemeteries — three Jewish graveyards and the Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery — make the Salt Lake Cemetery appear even larger.
Located at 200 N. N St. (about 950 East), this is Utah's oldest cemetery and has been around since 1848 — about a year after the Mormon pioneers arrived.
e-mail: lynn@desnews.com
A small sampling of some of the unusual sayings listed on graves in the Salt Lake City Cemetery:
"Absent, not dead." — Thos A. Tait, 1867-90.
"There is no vision but by faith." — Leon Laizer Wetters, 1877-1967.
"A builder of the West. Died Feb. 24, 1928, aged 87 years." — Isaac Woolf.
"Friend, teacher, writer." — Alice Louise Reynolds, 1873-1938.
"In God We Trust." — Roy Langdon Jr., 1928-2002.
"You can win the heart of a boy through love of nature and faith in God." Oscar (1880-1958) and Ida Kirkham (1880-1976).
"May peace be with you this day … and always." Elder Richard L. Evans, LDS Church apostle and "Music and the Spoken Word" narrator.
"My guardian angel." — Sylvia A. White, 1920-71.
"Come sit awhile with me." — Inscription on a bench next to the Joseph Quincy Griffith grave, 1925-77.
"From Kirtland to Utah a model of endurance." — Isaac Decker, 1799-1873.
"Strong minded and warm hearted." — Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball, 1806-63.
"He possessed great spiritual strength and leadership." — Francis Platt, 1886-1962.
"Life is a voyage homeward bound." — Wm. Samuel Ferre, 1901-51.
"Here rests a woodman of the world." — Wm D. McMillan, 1897-1922.
"He was a man of sterling worth; as guileless as a child; a brave defender of the truth; and yet by nature mild." — Joseph McMurrin, 1821-97.
"A most perfect woman." — Sarepta Blodgett Heywood, who died Dec. 4, 1881.
The grave of Sarah F. Tanner, wife of John W. Tanner, reads: "Farewell my dear wife, I bid you adieu, and this our dear babe, I have laid here by you. May heaven's kind angels guard o'er your grave, until from its power you are eventually saved." She died on Oct. 14, 1863, while bearing a child who died two days later and is also buried there.