As I’ve mentioned previously on the blog, one of my hobbies is giving tours of Greenwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Michigan. It is the resting place of Marshall M. Fredericks, Buck and Mary Chase Perry Stratton, Elmore Leonard, and Cranbrook Founders George and Ellen Booth (and many members of their family).

On a recent drive through Birmingham, I decided to stop and visit our founders. I had always wondered, when I gave tours of the cemetery, why some family members had certain symbols on their markers. After working here at Cranbrook for a couple of years, those symbols now make sense. I captured photos of several of the markers to share with you.

Warren Scripps Booth has a yacht on his marker, but he wasn’t a sailor in World War I – he was in the Field Artillery. It was only by reading his obituary that I learned that his favorite activity was to sail on his yacht when he wanted to get away from it all.

James Scripps Booth was a wonderful artist. His marker features an artist’s pallet with a stylized version of his initials “JSB.”

Henry Scripps Booth was called “Thistle” since he was a child. It was no surprise a beautiful thistle adorns his marker.

– Leslie S. Mio, Associate Registrar