Historian and author Abby Burnett's new bo ok is a fascinating and informative guide to unusual graves and graveyards in Arkansas. Burnett explores marble monuments in city cemeteries and hau nting carvings and inscriptions discovered in isolated\, rural graveyards\ , while telling the stories behind these burials. She also discusses the w ide variety of materials used to create markers\, the styles of grave cove rings common prior to the Civil War\, practical advice on understanding to mbstone symbolism and fraternal lodge emblems\, using noninvasive methods to photograph and clean headstones\, and other hands-on advice for extract ing maximum information from a tombstone. Her stories include biographies of the murderers\, accident victims\, seers\, and circus workers\, among o ther colorful characters\, buried in the graves. A don't-miss event for ce metery enthusiasts as well as historians\, genealogists\, and anyone inter ested in Arkansas's rich history.
\nIndependent researcher Abby Burn ett has long been interested in cemeteries and the stories they contain. H er focus on burial in the Ozarks led to her appearance in the AETN documen tary Silent Storytellers and to writing Gone to the Grave: Bu rial Customs of the Arkansas Ozarks\, 1850&ndash\;1950. Burnett has w ritten numerous entries for the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas a nd articles for the Association for Gravestone Studies. Though Silent They Speak: Arkansas Gravestones and Graveyards\, her comprehensive g uide to the state&rsquo\;s most unusual cemeteries\, was published in Dece mber 2025. Burnett lives on Bradshaw Mountain\, east of Kingston\, with he r partner and their four dogs.
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