World's Greatest Cemeteries

- [Announcer] In this episode of World's Greatest Cemeteries, - Muhammad Ali, in a way, is still with us, you know, - Amen to that.

- as a historic icon, - And his energy.

- Yeah.

- His spirit is still here with us.

- She told me I don't approve of women sculptors as a rule.

- Who was George Rogers Clark's younger brother?

- William, the youngest, who was 18 years younger than George Rogers Clark, ultimately paired up with Meriwether Lewis to lead the Lewis and Clark Expedition, or the Corps of Discovery.

(dramatic music) - The world's greatest cemeteries hold more than mortal remains.

They're monuments to landscape design, horticulture, and history.

I've spent years investigating the lives of the dead, finding out all I can about extraordinary people who were outsiders in their own day, but still managed to make significant contributions to humankind.

Welcome to World's Greatest Cemeteries.

(bright music) Welcome to Louisville, Kentucky.

The city of Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark, and was named after King Louis the XVI of France.

Today we're at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville and we're gonna meet up with the President and CEO, Gwen Mooney.

So Gwen, how old is Cave Hill?

- Cave Hill Cemetery is just about 175 years old.

It was established in 1848.

- [Roberto] Okay.

And how many acres is it?

- We have about 296 acres, very active burials, and then of course cremation being on the rise, a lot of people are choosing to place their cremated remains here.

- Right absolutely.

(bright music) So every time I say this man's name, people just break into a big, broad smile.

- Absolutely.

Who couldn't, when you say Colonel Harlan Sanders, you think about what he built, his entire legacy.

And it all started with just basically a small roadside service station, in the small town of Corbin, Kentucky in 1929.

- [Roberto] So he starts in 1929?

- Sure did.

- So then when we see him in TV commercials in the 1970s, he's a quite elderly man.

- He was, he was quite elderly at that time, but especially in his later years, was a true ambassador of the brand.

He traveled the country, promoted the brand, promoted his image, and is still one of the most widely recognized faces associated with a single brand across the globe.

(somber music) - [Roberto] Landmark cemeteries go to great lengths to maintain their botanical garden looks.

Cave Hill has a large horticultural staff and thousands of plants.

I spoke with Sarah Schaffner, Horticulture and Landscape Manager about their pollinator garden.

- So this pollinator garden is terrific.

Now, Sarah, this rhododendron looks different from the one that I have.

What is this?

- Probably because it's a hydrangea.

(chuckling) So this is a Panicle Hydrangea, and it gets the beautiful white color flowers in the springtime.

We would normally cut this back in the winter to help encourage growth and more blooms to come from there.

- Got it.

And over here, this looks familiar, but not quite.

So what do we call this?

- This is actually a native here.

This is Diervilla and it's in the honeysuckle family.

It's something that you can actually plant in place of the exotic invasive burning bush that we do not like here.

You get these little yellow flowers on the top that pollinators love, and visit often.

- And of those pollinators, what are you getting?

Bees and what else?

- Bees as well as butterflies.

And you can believe it or not, flies and gnats are also pollinators that are beneficial.

- Fantastic.

- This here, this is Blushing Beauty, actually blooms white in the spring.

It's an oakleaf hydrangea, so you'll get the transition of the blush colors this time of year, and that will lead into the fall timeframe as well.

You'll have really pretty exfoliating bark in the summertime, to when you have the dieback of the leaves, and then the cinnamon-colored bark starts to exfoliate, and it's just really pretty for the winter interest.

- What does this pollinator garden do for the cemetery as a whole?

- Oh, well, as a whole it produces food for our apiary that we have here, as well as radius miles around the city.

We're really a sanctuary for all things nature-loving.

So we're feeding the bees within our own neighborhood, as well as our adjacent neighborhoods throughout the city.

(gentle music) (gentle music) (bugle blowing) - [Roberto] Created in 1861, Cave Hill National Cemetery, a 4.1 acre Civil War era burial ground is within the northwest corner of the privately owned Cave Hill Cemetery.

(soft piano music) Enid Yandell, originally from Louisville, was a sculptor at a time when that occupation was frowned on for women.

Nonetheless, she studied with the legendary Auguste Rodin in Paris, and created many distinguished public monuments.

(somber music) - I was introduced to former First Lady Julia Dent Grant at the unveiling of the Ulysses S. Grant statue in Lincoln Park.

Mrs. Grant took issue with my employment as a sculptor.

She told me "I don't approve of women sculptors as a rule."

And then she said, "Every woman is better off at home taking care of husband and children.

The battle with the world hardens a woman and makes her unwomanly."

To which I replied, "Yes, well, I'm sure that the cutting of marble will give me the muscle I need to beat biscuits."

- [Roberto] Ms. Yandell's works may be seen around Louisville and in museums.

Her legacy includes becoming a leader in women's suffrage, involvement in the Red Cross, political advocacy and social activism.

Coming up later in this episode, - And I wanted it to reflect what Muhammad liked, which was color.

He loved flowers and color.

(dramatic music) - [Roberto] Our next story stretches back to Colonial times, the Revolutionary War, and the Eve of American Independence.

So Paul, George Rogers Clark is a fascinating American story 'cause this one guy lived a life that encompassed highs and lows.

Why don't you tell us about him?

- Well, George Rogers Clarke was born in 1752 in Albemarle County Virginia, near Charlottesville.

He was the second oldest of ten children; six boys and four girls.

- [Roberto] But then he goes into the Revolutionary War Army.

So why don't you tell us about how he gets into that?

- Clark led a small delegation to Virginia to seek statehood or at least Countyhood for Kentucky.

And at the same time, petition Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia to be able to go on the offensive against British-held territory, north of the Ohio River.

- Got it.

And then he distinguishes himself in battle?

- He does indeed.

He established a fort at the Falls of the Ohio, which grew into be Louisville, Kentucky.

And from there he led a force down the Ohio River to a fort in Illinois, near the Mississippi River that was held by the British.

He took that fort and his men took several other forts.

The British later that year retook that same fort, led by Lieutenant Governor of Great Britain, Henry Hamilton.

And then Clark led a very daring wintertime raid and recaptured that fort, and captured Henry Hamilton at the same time.

- Man, that's really something.

And for this, he's widely thought of as a hero.

- Yes, indeed.

He essentially, by gaining control of the Northwest Territory, which was land between Ohio over to the Mississippi, and north of the Ohio River up to the Great Lakes, he essentially doubled the size of Colonial America.

- But he falls on hard times after the war.

- Clark was a member of the Virginia militia as opposed to the Continental Army.

And militia members at that time would raise funds to fund their military activities with their own money or borrowed funds.

At the conclusion of the war, Clark was not properly reimbursed for his expenditures and was deeply in debt.

- So how did he spend the last days of his life?

- He was plagued by creditors and ill-health and alcoholism, and ultimately earned a living by operating a small gristmill on remaining Indiana land across from Louisville.

- But there's an interesting coda to this story, because who was George Rogers Clark's younger brother?

- William, the youngest, who was eighteen years younger than George Rogers Clark, ultimately paired up with Meriwether Lewis to lead the Lewis and Clark Expedition, or the Corps of Discovery.

- And there's a wonderful book that we both have read and enjoyed, called "Undaunted Courage," which is an incredible chronicle of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

But I want to thank you so much, Paul, for coming here.

- It's been a great pleasure.

- That's right.

It's an honor and a pleasure.

(dramatic music) (bright music) - Here is one of the world's best-kept secrets.

You don't have to drive miles and miles to the wilderness to go bird watching.

Chances are there's a wildlife area near you with terrific birding opportunities.

I'm here with Reverend Lee Payne, who is President of the local Audubon Society in Louisville, Kentucky.

- Nice to meet you.

- Man, I've been wanting to meet a a bird person for the longest time, since beginning this series, because as we know, these historic cemeteries are often the largest contiguous green space, and therefore wildlife area, in these major cities.

Is that correct?

- That is correct.

I mean, this is the heart of the City of Louisville, and right in the middle of the heart of the city there's 300 acres, and we have a lot of wildlife here, and we have over 182 species of birds throughout our property.

- Incredible.

So let me ask you what kinds of native birds there are here in Louisville, that you see here in the cemetery?

- Yes, we have a lot of native birds that are here all year round.

You know, we have our northern cardinal, we have our blue jay, we have our northern mockingbird, we have our song sparrows, and our house finches.

- Fantastic.

And what about migratory birds?

Because again, now you said this cemetery is on the North-South migration route, is that right?

- Yes sir.

- What kind of migratory birds are you getting here?

- Definitely the beautiful warblers.

We get the Canada warbler, the Kentucky warbler, we get the Wilson's warbler, we get the American bittern.

These are some wonderful birds that just migrate through here.

They don't stay here, they don't live here.

They bless us with their presence, all the beautiful colors, and we just get one glimpse of them, just for a very limited time.

- That's great.

Again, these historic cemeteries, the one in your town, is a very large green space, full of all kinds of wildlife, including birds.

(water fountain flowing) And thank you so much sir.

- My pleasure.

- All right, good.

Come on.

(gentle music) (water flowing) So Michael, I'm really curious to hear more about the Tingley brothers and the Tingley Fountain.

- The Tingley brothers were quite the philanthropic and business-minded brothers here in Louisville.

William Tingley was involved in wagon making.

He built quite a business developing wagons, and selling those during the Mexican War to the United States Government.

As years progressed, his empire grew, and then the business transitioned.

- Into automobiles.

- Into automobiles, correct, exactly, and developing kind of the chassis for those.

The other brother George, was involved in education.

He was the longest serving superintendent at Louisville Public School, serving thirty-one consecutive years.

- So Michael, tell us about these sculptures.

- Certainly.

The sculptures as a whole could be referred to as the Fountain of Living Waters in the Garden of Youth.

And when you look at the fountain, and you consider the background of the family, you see this young female with a blank slate, there is a young male with an open book, and then you have this towering figure above.

that is, in a way, sprinkling knowledge on these youth, and advancing them.

(water trickling) (gentle music) - [Roberto] I am fascinated by the fierce women of history.

We grew up with names like Harriet Tubman and Harriet Beecher Stowe, but thankfully, historians nowadays are rediscovering forgotten giants like Ida B.

Wells, Dorothea Dix, and Sacagawea.

Here's someone else I was excited to learn about.

- So here we're coming to one of our formidable 19th Century women, Susan Look Avery.

Susan Look Avery was quite the formidable person in her time.

She was truly dedicated to advancing the cause of women.

She was a founding member of the Woman's Club of Louisville.

She was also very active, especially in her later years, in focusing on various causes, such as the right to vote.

And she was hosting individuals like Susan B. Anthony and Booker T. Washington, especially as she was developing great alliances with the American Women's Suffrage Association, and even developed here in Louisville, the Louisville Equal Rights Association.

- Amazing.

And you mentioned that she was handicapped as well.

- Correct.

She was largely blind and largely hearing-impaired toward the latter part of her years.

And really the most mighty thing about her was her presence.

She had a great statement that she really used to kind of sum up her presence, and that she believed that there should be "Equal rights for all but special privileges for none."

(gentle piano music) (gentle music) - Trees are an iconic part of cemetery landscapes.

There are specially-trained staff who care for these living symbols of longevity, protection and serenity.

- Well I'm here with Roger Martin, Head Arborist at Cave Hill Cemetery.

We're gonna take a look at this magnificent ginkgo tree.

Come on Roger.

- All right.

- So this thing is huge.

- Absolutely.

- So about how large is this tree?

- Last time we measured it, we roughly guessed between 80 and 100 foot tall, 120 foot wide from canopy tip to canopy tip, and 97 inches in diameter.

So a bit over eight foot wide.

- That's a big tree, isn't it?

- Yes, absolutely.

- Now this tree has been struck by a certain natural phenomena right?

- Yes, it has.

- Let's talk about that.

So let's walk around to the other side here.

- Gotcha.

- Okay, this tree is a survivor of lightning.

And contrary to popular belief, lightning can strike twice at the same place.

So we decided a couple years ago to install lightning protection.

This is a conductive copper line with copper standoffs.

That means the cable stands off from the trunk.

And we have about 750 foot of copper installed, skeletonizing this tree, and eleven air terminals.

So we intimately, Greg, the guy I work with, and myself, spent several days getting to know this tree closely, personally, installing the system, coming down and actually deploying a ground system with two eight foot copper grounding rods.

- Amazing.

- It was a fascinating project.

- Absolutely.

- One of my favorite things to do because it's quiet.

You don't have to cut a lot, you don't make a lot of noise, and you really get to spend time and appreciate what you're working on.

- Absolutely.

Roger also showed me their magnificent magnolia trees.

We'll share more about those in an upcoming episode.

(gentle music) As the World's Greatest Cemeteries team travels, we're noticing how certain design elements also move around the globe.

In Season One, we saw Celtic crosses at Highgate Cemetery in London, and Egyptian decor at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Now, we find the Temple of Love at Cave Hill, based on Marie Antoinette's temple de l'Amour at the Palace at Versailles in France.

(gentle music) So who is the Satterwhite family?

- The Satterwhite family is most known well here in Cave Hill Cemetery for Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite, and his wife Florence Brokaw Martin Satterwhite.

- Florence Brokaw was a Gilded Age heiress who married a standard oil executive.

He passed away soon after their marriage, reportedly leaving her millions of dollars.

She later remarried a successful surgeon, named Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite.

They had mansions in New York and Florida, but... - They were only married for about nineteen years or so before Florence passed away.

So Dr. Satterwhite was so grief-stricken he wanted to do something to remember her.

And we had this beautiful majestic monument here, designed by Horace Trumbauer, that features a statue in the center by Sally Farnham.

The statue is actually meant to represent, symbolically, Florence, and it's referred to commonly as Flora.

More so, it is actually the Greek goddess Chloris, who's the goddess of the flower.

And as you look and examine the dome here, you'll see a variety of floral motifs that are just extravagantly carved, all hand-carved.

(dramatic music) - Muhammad Ali's grave is one of the most visited memorials at Cave Hill Cemetery.

I had a talk with Mrs. Lonnie Ali, Muhammad's fourth and final wife of 30 years, about this international hero.

First of all, there is only one Muhammad Ali, seriously, and I'll use the present tense, because Muhammad Ali, in a way, is still with us, you know, - Amen to that.

- as a historic icon.

- And his energy.

- Yeah.

- His spirit is still here with us.

- So did you design this monument?

- I designed it with specifications, because of Islam.

We do not have monuments, because we are all created equal; we're equal when we're born, we're equal when we die.

And given that restraint, I did wanna make it special.

I will tell you that Muhammad and I both came here and we picked out the plot, the family plot.

So that was done some years ahead.

And I wanted it to reflect what Muhammad liked, which was color.

He loved flowers and color.

- So on the stone itself, which is up there, and it says Ali on the top, I believe it says, well why don't you tell me what it says.

- Well, I amended it a little bit.

It was a saying of Muhammad's; "Service to others is a rent we pay for our room."

And I changed it to heaven.

But it's really for our room here on earth.

And that was sort of Muhammad's mantra, what he lived by; performing small acts of service, big acts of service to others, being kind, being compassionate, fighting for people who did not have a voice, standing up for people who did not have a voice, and having a moral conscience.

- What was it like to be married to him, and to know that everyone probably thought they knew him, everyone had heard something about him, but you actually, you know, were his wife, right.

So was that strange?

Did you ever feel like you were living under a magnifying glass of some sort?

- The biggest thing about Muhammad that you had to understand was his personality.

'Cause he had a big one.

- I think I understood that.

- He had a big personality, you know.

- And he loved people, and you had to let him express that, you had to allow people to come to him or for him to go to them.

You know what, I've known Muhammad since I was six years old, and grew up sort of with him in my life.

- Right, because your families knew each other.

- Right.

We lived across the street from his parents.

And we're both from Kentucky.

So we're both grounded, and we're both from Louisville.

In the values, the culture, and everything about what it means to be a Kentuckian and a Louisvillian.

- [Roberto] So you also built a nonprofit organization?

The Muhammad Ali Center.

- [Lonnie] Correct.

- [Roberto] What is that about, briefly?

- The Muhammad Ali Center is dedicated to Muhammad's legacy.

And so now we realize we have to mobilize that legacy, and engage, and do a lot of the work that Muhammad spent his life doing, in social justice, spreading compassion, understanding.

So that's the journey we're about to embark on.

- So the last thing I'm gonna ask you is about what you would like people to take away from this whole memorial.

- It's just a peaceful place to come and reflect.

And, you know, just be with him or talk to him, or just think about your own life, and maybe how he inspired you, or what his life meant to you.

So you know, everybody's welcome here.

Everybody.

(gentle music) - [Roberto] Join us all season long, as we travel to the world's greatest cemeteries, touring masterpieces of landscape, gardens and culture, while reliving dramatic stories about diverse historical figures.

- "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

- Here lies the body of John Jack.

- When Celia Cruz passed away, thousands of people lined the street as we followed the funeral procession.

- Let's start with you telling us a bit about Herman Melville.

- Well, what we know about Melville and Woodlawn is he started out as a young man writing about the South Pacific.

- Well, the Chinese were actually brought here as contract workers after the Civil War.

- [Roberto] We'll discover artistic designs, check out stunning vistas, and uncover surprising facts about the past.

- And on his list of staff, he had a friend, a very close friend who was an engineer, and they actually tented together for a time.

- [Announcer] Robert E. Lee.

- And at the bottom we see a common epitaph on Jewish monuments that symbolizes, "May their souls be bound in the bonds of eternal life."

- Well, that's our visit to Cave Hill Cemetery and Arboretum in Louisville, Kentucky.

Please check out our site for more info and links.

If you go, please drop me a line and let me know about your experience.

You can find out more about this episode, just get in touch, or tell us about your favorite cemetery or historical figure at www.worldsgreatestcemeteries.com (gentle music) (soft music) (bright music)