As if it weren’t scary enough to traipse through a cemetery after dark with tombstones illuminated only by the flickering flames of kerosene lanterns, imagine the fear brought on by an unexpected visitor — one who’s missing a head.
It’s this element of surprise that sends screams echoing through Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on crisp, autumn evenings. Silently, the Headless Horseman stalks those who’ve come to tour the sprawling graveyard, the final resting place of Washington Irving. The author has introduced generations of schoolkids to the ghostly Revolutionary War soldier decapitated by a cannonball in his famous short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
“Sometimes they see us, sometimes they don’t,” horse trainer Hugh Francis said of his nocturnal rides. “I will have the horse come up and nudge them with his head. It literally scares the crap out of them.”
To achieve his headless effect, Francis wears a costume that raises his shoulder line about 6 inches and puts a collar over the top of his head.
“I kind of go semi-blind looking through the weave of the black cape that the Headless Horseman wears,” he said.
“It’s a visitor favorite when they unexpectedly come upon the Headless Horseman,” said Christina Orban-La Salle, the cemetery’s director of visitor services. “It’s not a scripted appearance. He kind of comes and goes.”
While historic cemeteries across the country welcome the living (and the dead) year-round, graveyards are particularly popular places during Halloween season. In the village made famous by Washington Irving, people are both regaled and spooked by the tale of schoolmaster Ichabod Crane and his encounters with the ghastly creature on horseback.
Irving’s grave, in a family plot beneath a 300-year-old oak tree, overlooks the nearby Old Dutch Church , one of the oldest churches in the country, and its comparatively small “burying ground.” They provided Irving’s inspiration.
“The ghost rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head,” Irving wrote. Later, the author noted the Headless Horseman was “in a hurry to get back to the churchyard before daybreak.”
Each fall, sellout audiences pack the church for professional storyteller Jonathan Kruk’s animated telling of the tale.
“Washington Irving has a beautifully descriptive but verbose way of writing,” he said. “He has these long descriptive passages but is short on dialogue. I made it my mission to create dialogue, to give the characters voices.”
The storyteller is accompanied by an organist who adds dramatic notes to the 50-minute shows.
“The church sexton, John Paine, dutifully lights 70 candles every evening for the performance,” Kruk said. “They just beautifully illuminate the place … and reflect out into the cemetery. I’m able to point and say, ‘This is where the Headless Horseman was put into an unmarked grave.'”
Many famous people have chosen the tranquil Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, situated in the Hudson River Valley about 25 miles north of New York City, for burial. They include cosmetics queen Elizabeth Arden, industrialist Andrew Carnegie and automaker Walter Chrysler.
To see the graves of the rich and famous from the world of showbiz requires a journey westward. Many of the stars of television and film, from the silent movie era onward, are buried in Los Angeles-area cemeteries. Dearly Departed Tours offers themed trips to various spots. And Hollywood Forever Cemetery welcomes visitors to the graves of actors such as Charlie Chaplin, Mickey Rooney and Rudolph Valentino.
Sightseers shouldn’t expect a warm welcome during a visit to the largest of the cemeteries dotted with celebrities’ graves: Forest Lawn Glendale. Employees at this massive, 300-acre cemetery do their best to protect the privacy of the permanent residents.
The internet, however, provides clues for where to find the stars’ resting places. For example, James Maitland Stewart, known to millions as actor Jimmy Stewart, lies beneath overgrown grass on a steep hillside near the cemetery’s church, Wee Kirk o’ the Heather. It’s a popular place not only for funerals, but weddings too.
Actress Elizabeth Taylor is interred near her close friend singer Michael Jackson inside the majestic Great Mausoleum. Taylor’s grave is marked by a large angel, its wings outspread, in the main hallway. Jackson’s is in a private location, inaccessible to the public.
Among the many other notables laid to rest inside the mausoleum are movie stars Clark Gable and his wife, Carole Lombard. Their side-by-side markers can be found in the building’s Sanctuary of Trust.
Only in funky Key West, Fla., could you expect to find wacky epitaphs like, “If you’re reading this, you desperately need a hobby” and “At least I know where he’s sleeping tonight.” On the modest headstone belonging to Betty Pearl “B.P.” Roberts are carved these all-too-true words: “I told you I was sick.” After a number of illnesses and operations, Roberts died in 1979, age 50.
The Historic Florida Keys Foundation offers twice-weekly walking tours.
Twelve-hundred miles to the north, in Alexandria, Va., sits America’s oldest cemetery for veterans. Yes, Alexandria National Cemetery predates its more famous neighbor, Arlington National Cemetery.
A key campsite for Union soldiers defending Washington, D.C., Alexandria opened the graveyard in 1862 to bury troops who died during training or from disease. It was the first cemetery in which black and white soldiers were laid to rest beside one another.
In 1864, with the Civil War still raging and the Alexandria grounds nearing capacity, the Army’s quartermaster appropriated more land 8 miles up the Potomac River, and Arlington National Cemetery was born.
Jay Jones is a freelance writer.
