C In-Person Class: This class will be taught in person, in the classroom at the Red Cross building.
Enrollment: The American Red Cross pandemic protocols may limit the enrollment for this class.
Registrants will be informed in advance, and a waitlist will be available.
There is no single site in the community that tells its story with more drama than the cemetery. It is the one place where we can trace our roots in what is becoming a rootless society. There are the rich and famous lying side by side with the poor and not so famous. There are pioneers and latecomers, scoundrels and saints, infants and centenarians. Each gravestone has a story to tell. Traveling from Alaska to Key West, from Hawaii to Canada, from New Zealand to England, we find myriad examples of burial customs and symbolism on gravestones. In the words of our presenter, “We wish to encourage communities to focus on one of their most significant historical resources – the local cemetery.”
Rochelle Balkam taught history and government at Ypsilanti High School for 36 years and taught Michigan history at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) for 27 years. She holds both an M.A. degree in history and an M.S. in historic preservation from EMU. Rochelle serves on the board of the Michigan One-Room Schoolhouse Association, and is a former board member of the Historical Society of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Historic District Commission.