A Visit to Carson McCullers’ Grave in Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack

The Goatherd book club is reading “Heart is a Lonely Hunter” this round, and Greg and I will be hosting dinner. We thought it might be fun to meet up at Carson’s grave and toast her great talent.

We found, unfortunately, that the cemetery closes at 5 p.m. during the winter — way too early for us to meet there, even surreptitiously and with flasks under the cover of darkness. We thought we might meet, instead, in front of her home on South Broadway. Turns out, on the day of the meeting, it was raining, so we did neither.

But our trip to Oak Hill was not without reward. After driving around aimlessly and doing a little research on the phone, we finally found the grave, and now know it’s exact location. If you’re looking at the cemetery from 9W, it is as far right as you can possibly go, about halfway up the hill, behind the blue condos. FindAGrave says it’s in the High Lawn section, but I seem to remember that’s not exactly the right name, but it is close. More photos, after the jump.

Carson’s view:

The Hudson River:

Greg, looking for the gravestone:

More of Oak Hill Cemetery:

There are lots of famous people buried at Oak Hill, including Edward Hopper, Helen Hayes and Charles MacArthur, and more, but we did not know these famous names were also part of the club: