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GUIDE TO PRESIDENTIAL GRAVESITES AND LIBRARIES: UPDATED FOR 2010!
C-SPAN's book, Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb: A Tour of Presidential Gravesites, by Brian Lamb and the C-SPAN staff, is updated for 2010. In the book, C-SPAN provides a comprehensive guide to the final resting places of our nation's presidents. As much about the presidents' lives as it is about their burial sites and how to visit them, this book belongs in the glove box of every traveler and the bedside table of every American history fan.
This volume includes visitor information, directions, admission prices, and contact information for every presidential gravesite, as well as the libraries of the living former presidents and likely sites of their memorials. You'll also find essays on the late presidents from Richard Norton Smith relating poignant and sometimes humorous looks at the final moments of these great men.
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Now available in paperback!
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DID YOU KNOW?
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TRIVIA
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Q. Which president had such a fear of being buried alive that his will stipulated no burial until at least three days after his death?
A. George Washington
Q. Which president had his gravesite nearly broken into by bodysnatchers and was later reburied in a more secure tomb?
A. Abraham Lincoln
Q. Which president suffered a stroke on the House floor and died two days later in the Capitol?
A. John Quincy Adams
Q. Which president was so obsessed by his dead wife's memory that he hung her portrait across from his bed so he would see her at the beginning and end of each day?
A. Andrew Jackson
Q. Which president caught pneumonia while delivering a more than l00-minute inaugural address outdoors in bad weather and died days later?
A. William Henry Harrison
Q. Which president was initially buried in a common cemetery with 32 other victims of cholera?
A. James K. Polk
Q. Which president asked that a letter explaining his broken engagement be burned at his death, unopened?
A. James Buchanan
Q. Which president after an assassination attempt, had one of Alexander Graham Bell's earliest metal detectors used on him to try and find the bullets?
A. James A. Garfield
Q. Which president had a secret cancer operation aboard a boat that involved replacing his upper left jaw with a rubber prosthesis?
A. Grover Cleveland
Q. Which president was buried in a black judicial robe for a funeral with 120 cars and 1,000 military?
A. William H. Taft
Q. Which president said these last words: "The machinery is worn out. I am ready."?
A. Woodrow Wilson
Q. Which president, who is still living, has already prepared his burial site?
A. George H.W. Bush
Q. Which president uttered these last words: "I have a terrible headache"?
A. Franklin D. Roosevelt
Q. Which president after the death of his predecessor, was sworn into office by his father in the middle of the night, then went back to bed?
A. Calvin Coolidge
Q. Which president was the oldest living president at his death?
A. Gerald Ford (93 years, 165 days)
Q. Which president was the youngest to die?
A. John F. Kennedy
Q. Which president is buried in the National Cathedral?
A. Woodrow Wilson
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Andrew Jackson chose to have the title "general" chiseled into his sarcophagus.
Thomas Jefferson's epitaph ignored his service as president.
James Garfield is buried in the same cemetery as John D. Rockefeller.
Eight presidents died in office, four of them (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy) at the hands of assassins.
The first incumbent to die in office? William Henry Harrison.
Andrew Johnson insisted on being buried in an American flag, his head resting upon a copy of the Constitution whose wartime transformation he stubbornly refused to concede.
The first president of the modern era to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda was William Howard Taft.
Since Eisenhower, Washington National Cathedral has twice provided a backdrop to presidential obsequies (Reagan in 2004 and Ford in 2007).
The average age of our chief executives at death was 70.
Harry Truman successfully lobbied for a presidential pension.
Franklin D. Roosevelt came up with the idea of establishing a presidential library to be administered by the National Archives. Today ten presidential libraries are run through the National Archives.
Speaking of Grant's tomb, when he was dying of throat cancer, the result of a 20-cigar-a-day habit, doctors applied a cocaine solution to dull the excruciating pain.
BY THE NUMBERS
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Q. Which TWO presidents died on the same Fourth of July?
A. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
Q. Which TWO presidents are buried in Arlington Cemetery?
A. William H. Taft
and John F. Kennedy
Q. Which TWO presidents are buried in the same cemetery as Confederate President Jefferson Davis?
A. John Tyler and James Monroe
Q. Which FOUR presidents lived past 90?
A. John Adams, Herbert Hoover, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford
Q. Which state has the most presidential gravesites?
A. Virginia
SOURCE: Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb: A Tour of Presidential Gravesites - by Brian Lamb and the C-SPAN staff.
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