History comes alive at McKeesport cemetery
By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
McKeesport & Versailles Cemetery came to life this weekend for the Living History Cemetery Tour, and those who strolled the scenic graveyard got the unique opportunity to “meet” some of the 44,000 souls buried there.
McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center board member and Chairwoman Andrea Luketic Cartwright said the tour, now in its sixth year, features the stories of people who lived and died in an interesting way.
It’s also an opportunity to show off the beauty of the cemetery, get patrons interested in local history, raise money for the nonprofit center and engage with residents of the Mon Valley and beyond.
Seeing towering and elaborate gravestones, crypts and tombs of all shapes and sizes erected as a tribute to a person’s life, reading the names and the years they roamed the earth and wondering how many graves don’t have markers causes attendees to wonder “Who was that person?” “What was their story?” and “Is anyone left to remember them?”
The Living History Tour gave patrons a chance to have some of those questions answered.
There were no actual ghosts, but tour goers got to walk among some of the most storied and elaborate headstones, crypts, niches and plots in the 164-year-old cemetery, taking breaks along the way to watch as actors portrayed 11 people who are buried in the cemetery or who were once buried there and have since been exhumed and moved to another graveyard.
The staff, volunteers and board members of the center followed CDC and state and Allegheny County Health Department guidelines regarding outdoor public gatherings.
To ensure those who either can’t traverse a cemetery as a result of health issues or don’t yet feel comfortable being out in public during a pandemic get to see the show, the center brought in videographer Mark Cantu, who filmed each portrayal.
The video will be available for online purchase in early October.
The tour began with a conversation with “The Widow,” portrayed by Anna Marie Colecchi.
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