Katherine Grant Updates

Well, we did it! We reached our goal and within the coming weeks Katherine Grant will have a headstone marking her final resting place. 

Where we stand now is the headstone has been completed and delivered to the cemetery. There is no specific date that the headstone will be placed, unfortunately. I just have to give them a couple of days and I will give them a call to find out the status and if it has been placed. 

About two weeks ago I met with the man behind the Silent Film Quarterly, Charles Epting, and what started off as just him interviewing me turned into a brainstorming session about an unveiling ceremony for the headstone as well as ideas for future headstone projects. Right now we are working on settling on a date for the ceremony, but we know it will probably be in late August. He is also working on a special edition of the SFQ dedicated to Katherine Grant. We hope to announce the next headstone project at the ceremony too.

I wanted to take this opportunity to not just give everyone a heads up about what is going on with the headstone project, but also to thank everyone who has been involved in making this possible. First, I would like to thank the donors. As far as I am concerned, every one of you is a part of that headstone!

Michael DeVito

Wayne Britton

Frank Stewart

Paddy Adamson

Alan Abrams

Elliot Hearst

Richard Lanham

Joe Libby

Tim Lussier

Elizabeth Ann and ClassicBeauties.com

Minda Powers-Douglas

Dave Sikula

Dave Samuelson

Michael Aus

Melinda Bailey and daughter

Rosemary Hawkins

Kayla Sturm and SallyBlane.com

Jill Feldman

John Bickler

Tom Suhs

The Charley Chase Fan Facebook page

Gil McAuliff

Ren Kessler

Tracy Terhune

Malachi Fonseca

Jennifer Epting

John TerVeen

Jessica Beagle
Patricia Lemoine 

...and every donor who wished to remain anonymous

Next, I wanted to thank those who have been behind the project since the beginning and have helped in many ways. First, Tom Suhs who was the one who emailed me and asked to get the ball rolling to get a headstone for Katherine. Without his help, this project would not have began when it did. Tom also first reached out to the next person I want to thank, Katherine's great-niece, Kelly Flick. Without Kelly's permission and enthusiasm, we really wouldn't have been able to start this project. Roger Tran at Panda Memorials also deserves a thank you for helping with the design of the headstone and for communicating with Evergreen Cemetery. 

Charles Epting of the Silent Film Quarterly for taking such interest and helping me see how big this project could really be. Likewise, Paulette Reynolds of CineMatasMovieMadness.com for also taking an interest in the project and helping me see my love of silent film and cemeteries in a different (dare I say cosmic?) light! Jordan Burch, for reminding me that even though this is my passion, I don't have to get stressed out and expect to accomplish everything at once. 

Also deserving of thanks is each and every one of you who shared the GoFundMe link to help get the word out. Without your help this project wouldn't have reached out as far as it did. 

Keep an eye out for more updates! They will hopefully be coming soon. Also, I had requests to cover more silent film child stars, so I will be doing some entries on the Our Gang kiddies! Mary Kornman will be first!