Genealogy, cemetery photography, and collecting unusual names from tombstones are among my hobbies. I love reading (history, biographies, poetry), animals, cooking, old houses, art, travel, gardening, driving aimlessly, and exploring Mother Nature. In college, I studied European church history, Spanish language and culture, Southern American literature, African-American historical texts, gender studies/Southern masculinity, and composition theory. My African, Dutch, English, German and Irish ancestors were among the founding settlers of Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, & New York. My favorite cemeteries include the founders and military cemeteries in St. Augustine, Florida; the Lexington Cemetery and African Cemetery No. 2 in Lexington, Kentucky; Red Oak Cemetery in Brown County, Ohio; Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia; and the ancient burial sites of Galicia. My ancestors include a host of saints and sinners: Thomas Paine, American radical and revolutionary; the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. religious leader and father of the Civil Rights icon; Homer Van Meter, getaway driver for Depression-era gangster John Dillinger; Penelope Von Prinzen Stout, founding mother of New Jersey; the Governors Winthrop, of MA and CT; Elizabeth Bee, a courtesan of Elizabeth I; James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist; Miles Davis, Jazz musician; William "Billy" Helphenstine, participant in a famous Fleming County, Kentucky, murder trial; Jan and Jos VanMatre, among the first Dutch colonists in America; Isaac Wamsley, German ship's captain-turned-Revolutionary War patriot; Peter Helphenstine, Virginia militia man, friend of George Washington, and Revolutionary War patriot; and many unknown persons who made their homes in the emerald-colored hollers of Appalachia, or were stolen from their homelands to lay the foundation of the United States. My fantasy cemetery vacation? Pere-Lachaise, of course! I have written the following bios for FAG: Thomas Philip "Tip" O'Neill, John F. Kennedy Jr., Michael Hutchence, Laura Ashley, Quentin Crisp, Adolph Rupp, and Jurgen Baldiga.

Genealogy, cemetery photography, and collecting unusual names from tombstones are among my hobbies. I love reading (history, biographies, poetry), animals, cooking, old houses, art, travel, gardening, driving aimlessly, and exploring Mother Nature. In college, I studied European church history, Spanish language and culture, Southern American literature, African-American historical texts, gender studies/Southern masculinity, and composition theory. My African, Dutch, English, German and Irish ancestors were among the founding settlers of Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, & New York. My favorite cemeteries include the founders and military cemeteries in St. Augustine, Florida; the Lexington Cemetery and African Cemetery No. 2 in Lexington, Kentucky; Red Oak Cemetery in Brown County, Ohio; Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia; and the ancient burial sites of Galicia. My ancestors include a host of saints and sinners: Thomas Paine, American radical and revolutionary; the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. religious leader and father of the Civil Rights icon; Homer Van Meter, getaway driver for Depression-era gangster John Dillinger; Penelope Von Prinzen Stout, founding mother of New Jersey; the Governors Winthrop, of MA and CT; Elizabeth Bee, a courtesan of Elizabeth I; James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist; Miles Davis, Jazz musician; William "Billy" Helphenstine, participant in a famous Fleming County, Kentucky, murder trial; Jan and Jos VanMatre, among the first Dutch colonists in America; Isaac Wamsley, German ship's captain-turned-Revolutionary War patriot; Peter Helphenstine, Virginia militia man, friend of George Washington, and Revolutionary War patriot; and many unknown persons who made their homes in the emerald-colored hollers of Appalachia, or were stolen from their homelands to lay the foundation of the United States. My fantasy cemetery vacation? Pere-Lachaise, of course! I have written the following bios for FAG: Thomas Philip "Tip" O'Neill, John F. Kennedy Jr., Michael Hutchence, Laura Ashley, Quentin Crisp, Adolph Rupp, and Jurgen Baldiga.