stone free…

by Art Chantry (art@artchantry.com)

AFTER the ms. love story, i’m sharing something a little tamer. this is a photograph, taken by the legendary karen moskowitz, of mr. james marshall hendrix’s gravestone. we were out in the neighborhood for some other reason (some other photoshoot for the rocket which i’ve long forgotten) and karen toured us to the gravesite. it was funny because we had trouble finding it and a groundskeeper riding a little tractor waved at us and then circled the sight and pointed dramatically toward the ground. then he tootled off into the sunset.

AC:ever visited bruce lee's grave on cap hill? brandon's is right next to it. a couple of months ago i found bob satiacum's grave. it's pretty cool. anybody out there still have a bottle of 'big chief' whiskey? i'd love to find a bottle (empty o otherwise.)

When we got to the sight, there was a wilted rose and a couple of old doobies on the stone (we moved them to shoot, then returned them when we finished). it was next to his grandmother’s grave (she was an old vaudevillian who got stranded in seattle in the teens/twenties. she lived to be 100. she was also part cherokee, i’ve been told. an interesting woman).

One of the weird things was that people had been snagging clumps of sod as souvenirs, the the area around the tone was all patchworked with chunks replacing the sod stolen. sorta sad and funny at the same time.

I guess the hendrix family has replaced this stone with a more elaborate memorial (now that they can afford to). this original stone may still be there, but i don’t know.


Interestingly, when the gravestone was purchased, it was only an inscription. but the stonecutter put a fender strat on the stone free of charge as a gift/memorial of his own. too bad he didn’t string it upside down, eh?

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