In one of the more spectacular examples of natural selection being exhibited by a tree, I realized there was a sapling growing from the inside of the dome of the Biddle Mausoleum in Calvary Cemetery. I hadn’t noticed when I visited in March of 2015, but I looked back to my photos from August of 2013, and I could see that it had already begun its endeavor in near impossible growing conditions.

Nearby, I spotted an open book, and soon identified its open pages were a passage from To Kill a Mockingbird; on the bench itself there is another inscription. It seems to be paraphrased from the book Black Boy by Richard Wright, but I am not sure if that is correct.

It turns out this is the grave of Herbert A. Eastman, a civil right lawyer who died of cancer in St. Louis back in 1995. Much of his obituary, published in the Post-Dispatch, is reproduced at this link.

I also went by the Sarpy-Morrison family plot, and looked at two of the most unique monuments in a St. Louis cemetery. The appearance of the two sculptures was dramatically different from the first time I photographed them back in July of 2019 when it was cloudy. There were next to no toys left in the cribs this time, either. You can see the Berthold monument in the background.