Virginian-Pilot observes Memorial Day with full-page gravestone rubbing
Memorial Day is a big, big deal in these parts. The Navy’s Atlantic Fleet is based in Norfolk. And that’s just one of the many military installations in the area. Much of The Virginian-Pilot’s readership base is military and retired military and their families.
So our design geniuses — including Sam Hundley, who did the gruntwork — chose a headstone in the giant military cemetery across the river from us, over in Hampton, took a rubbing and then used it to commemorate Memorial Day.
The rubbing is nicely done. The design is wonderful — notice how Sam took the Pilot’s nameplate down in size and nudged it over to the left. And the absence of any color at all makes this page complete.
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UPDATE:
Sam told us the story behind the piece:
Deb Withey [Deputy Managing Editor] and Paul Nelson [Presentation Editor] asked me back in April to come up with an idea for an inside page to commemorate Memorial Day.
I started researching Hampton National Cemetery because I remember driving by it and thinking how beautiful it was. I found out that there are 8 Medal of Honor recipients resting there, and I was mightily impressed by the actions of 1st Lt Ruppert Sargent, who saved the men he was with when he threw himself on 2 grenades in Vietnam in 1967.
The editors liked the idea of presenting a rubbing of Sargent’s headstone, the MOH citation and his photo, as symbolic of all vets who have died in service to the country.
The cemetery would not allow a rubbing to be made without the consent of the Sargent family, so Jake Hays of the research team in The Virginian-Pilot library tracked down a phone number for the next of kin, who gave his blessing to me to make the rubbing.
Producing the rubbing was a very moving experience. Working from the top of the stone down, I finished the bottom part while lying face down on the grassy grave. It took about 10-15 minutes.
When the editor, Denis Finley, saw the page design, he decided to move it to A1 as a testament of the sacrifices being made every day by the men and women of our military.
Denis, in turn, shared with me the memo he sent — last Wednesday, May 21 — in which he proposed moving the page to A1:
I’m still thinking about the page Sam has done with the gravestone rubbing. It’s so good, I want to think of a way to make it our Front Page. For this community, it would be a wonderful gesture of gratitude for all who have sacrificed their lives, and it captures the true meaning of the day better than anything I have ever seen.
I talked to Meredith [Kruse, our Military Editor] a little and our concern is the fact that it depicts one guy. Yes, by extension, it represents everybody who has died in service to the country.
If we can finesse it a little I think we can make it work and we will create a spectacular front page that will stun our community. When you see it, the meaning of it slowly sinks in makes you stop and think. We cannot do better than that. It’s a great opportunity.
Think about it and let’s talk on Thursday.
Want a closer look? Tickle the thumbnail:
As usual, I must invoke a full-disclosure policy here: I had nothing to do with this page. I’m not nearly clever enough to come up with genius ideas like this.
May 26th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Gorgeous. Best page of 2008.
May 26th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
That is absolutely beautiful.
May 26th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Link and the Pilot have a weekly/every other week design meeting, and Sam’s been coming down to our meetings a lot. He had a pretty great story to tell about how this page came to be, but I definitely wouldn’t want to steal his thunder — he should tell it.
May 26th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Charles:
We must know: How did this paper sell as far as single copy? One would think it’s much more intriguing than the holiday Monday paper most of us are content to put on the rack.
If you can find out, that would be good info to know.
May 26th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
gawd. i hate the pilot (i mean that in the best possible way).
just give it a gold right now. =)
May 27th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Wonderful! I would love to know the story involved in getting & making the image.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Darren, it probably involved going to the cemetery with a large piece of paper….
Kidding aside, I’m impressed with this page. This page puts a face on war dead that just running a photo alone, or the marker alone, wouldn’t do. There are stories to tell, and this told just one of the more than 1.1 million.
Wow.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I’m also impressed with the page as well. Did the Pilot include any sort of information on how to do your own gravestone rubbings? I think that sort of sidebar, presented on an inside page, is a perfect companion piece to a design like this and would be extremely popular.
May 27th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
That is just an extremely well executed and unique and fantastic front page! A great way to memorialize those who’ve served our country.
May 28th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Here’s the background Q&A on how it happened and what it took to make it happen:
Q: Where did this idea originate?
A: Deb Withey and Paul Nelson asked me to come up with an inside page to commemorate Memorial Day and after a little research, I thought a gravestone rubbing might be nice way to single out one from the geometric forest of stone and be personal and universal at the same time.
The Hampton National Cemetery has eight Medal of Honor recipients buried there, but Ruppert Sargent stood out to me because he died in the Vietnam War and he was born and raised in Hampton. All the others fought in the Civil War.
Q: What was involved in making it happen?
A: First of all, we wanted to see if Sargent had any family still living in the area. Jake Hays discovered his widow and son, but contacting them proved to be very difficult. Anyhow, more than a week went by and the phone numbers were not working – one was a fax, one would ring and ring with no answer, one was for a car dealership… so I went out to the cemetery the Monday before Memorial Day to make the rubbing. I decided that I would talk to the family afterward. Understandably, the cemetery director would not allow me to make the rubbing without the family’s consent.
Jake found another number that day, the son’s cell phone, and I contacted him that afternoon. (A little more on Jake’s role, from Meredith Kruse: Jake really worked Accurint’s second- and third-degree connections hard for us and that’s what finally paid off. He found a woman who turned out to be the mother-in-law of Sargent’s son and she gave us the phone number we needed.)
After a couple of conversations, the son reluctantly gave permission to do the rubbing. He apologized for being so reticent, and explained that his family was very private and protective of Ruppert’s legacy. But in then end, he said he trusted me when I told him that we would be respectful of his father and his family.
Q: How many folks in the newsroom worked to make this possible?
A: Jake, Maureen Watts, Meredith, Kim Kent, Paul, Deb, Maria and Denis all had a hand in it. (And for online, Miranda Mulligan pulled together an interactive map of veterans’ cemeteries and a tutorial on how to decorate a military grave).
Q: When did you do the rubbing and what was that like?
A: I went out there last Thursday, at around 11 a.m. Making the rubbing was very moving. The stone is 13 inches wide, and maybe 20 inches tall. I taped a piece of 18- x 24-inch white paper on the top of the stone with masking tape and held it against the breeze with my right hand as I started rubbing it from the top down with a black grease pencil. The image of the cross in the circle revealed itself first, then his name, and on down… as I got to the bottom of the stone, I had to lie face down on the grave. The grass was thick, cool and smelled good. It was shady and quiet. It took between 10-15 minutes.
Q: This page was originally slated to run inside (with a front-page promo), and then Denis suggested that we make this our front page. What was your response to moving it to the front?
A: My first thought was, “That wonderful, crazy sonofabitch.†Then it dawned on me that I’d have to make sure Sargent’s son was cool with it. He was thrilled when I told him it might be the front page.
Q: What has been the family’s reaction?
A: The son called me this morning to let me know that he and his family loved the page. He said he was in a 7-Eleven and just watched people walk up to the paper and stop in their tracks at the sight of it. He thanked me and said he was so honored to have his father given such prominence on Memorial Day. He also said it was much more powerful than he thought it would be.
May 28th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I forgot to point out that the answers are from Sam Hundley.