Shannon Applegate

A combination of essays on family life and care of the local cemetery. I found the sections on the cemetery much more interesting due to her interactions with the towns people that used it and the history of the area. I was really less interesting in the information on her family which would have been better served in a different volume.

Living Among Headstones is a series of essays about the author’s life in the small town of Yoncalla, Oregon. The book opens with Applegate taking over custody of the family owned Applegate Pioneer Cemetery from her father, the colorful Colonel Rex Applegate. Stories of Applegate family members and other Yoncalla denizens are interspersed with historic information about Victorian cemeteries, drawings and photos provided by Applegate’s cousin and other locals.

Readers who enjoy the Lake show more Wobegon stories on NPR would probably find these stories charming, but this book was just not my cup of tea. Having grown up in a small town (500 people; about 1/3 the size of Applegate's Yoncalla), I have no fantasies about the romanticiscm of it all. I would have preferred more Oregon history, and/or more detailed portraits of the pioneer ancestors in the Applegate family. This family is well known in Oregon history. They established the Applegate Trail, a southern route to Oregon, and many geographical features have been named for various family members. show less