Welcome to Rock Creek Cemetery. As always with cemetery caches please be respectful. This is one in a series of caches designed to highlight notable gravesites in the region. This is a companion cache to GC93H8C (Notables at Rock Creek Cemetery) so be sure to find that one as well.
N 38 AB.CDE W 77 0.FGH
The posted coordinates will bring you to the grave of John Marshall Harlan. Born in 1833 to an important slaveholding Kentucky family, Harlan entered politics at an early age when he was appointed adjutant general of Kentucky when he was only eighteen. When the Civil War broke out, Harlan sided with the Union and formed a regiment of infantry of which he would serve as colonel. After leaving the army in 1863 due to the death of his father, Harlan was elected as Kentucky Attorney General. Despite his support for the Union, after the war ended Harlan opposed the Thirteenth Amendment (abolishing slavery) and only agreed with some of the more moderate attempts at Reconstruction. In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Harlan to the U.S. Supreme Court. Harlan was partly chosen because in the aftermath of the contested 1876 presidential election, it was politically useful for Hayes to nominate a Southerner. During his time on the Court, Harlan became known for his dissenting opinions. Most notably in Plessy v. Ferguson (the case that established the "seperate but equal" doctrine with regards to racial segregation), Harlan was the lone dissenter, writing that the Constitution "is color-blind". Harlan was less favorable to Chinese immigrants, dissenting in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (a case that upheld birthright citizenship). Harlan died in 1911, having served on the Supreme Court for just short of thirty-four years.
AB = helpmate years plus 1.
The next stage will bring you to the grave of Tim Russert. Born in Buffalo, New York in 1950, Russert worked as a senior aide to Senator Daniel Moynihan and Governor Mario Cuomo before joining NBC News as a bureau chief. In 1991, Russert first achieved notoriety when he was made host of the political interview program Meet the Press. Known for his political coverage, Russert correctly predicted Florida as the primary battleground state in the 2000 presidential election and Ohio in the 2004 presidential election. Although he did not first use the terms, Russert helped popularize the terminology of "red states" and "blue states" while reporting on the 2000 presidential election. In the following years, Russert would be caught up in the Plame affair, where it was claimed that he gave away the identity of a covert CIA official. In addition to his work as a journalist, he also wrote two best-selling autobiographies. Russert died in 2008 of a heart attack at the age of 58.
C = digit of date of birth.
The next stage will take you to the grave of Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Born the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt in 1884, her mother and grandmother both died two days after she was born. Known as a great beauty during her father's presidency, she was presented to society in 1902. The blue gown she wore on that occasion gave rise to a fashion sensation of people wearing "Alice blue" dresses. She would also frequently make the papers for her partying and otherwise scandalous behavior that broke the social norms of the time. In 1906, she would marry Nicholas Longworth, a Congressman and future Speaker of the House in an elaborate wedding ceremony. However, due to her independant political activity, the marriage was often a distant one. Roosevelt Longworth had a long and thinly concealed affair with Senator William Borah. In fact Borah was the father of her only child Paulina (who is buried with her). Throughout her later years, Roosevelt Longworth maintianed relationships with presidents of both parties, living to see the presidency of Jimmy Carter (whom she declined to ever meet). Outliving her daughter by over 20 years (Paulina Sturm died of a sleeping pill overdose in 1957), Alice Roosevelt Longworth died in 1980 at the age of 96.
DE = Paulina's birthday date plus 17
Next you will find the grave of George McGovern. Born in 1922, McGovern grew up in South Dakota. After serving as a decorated bomber pilot in World War II, he became in local politics, eventually being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1956 as a Democrat. In Congress he was considered to be a skilled debator and one of the body's most liberal members. After failing to be elected to the Senate in 1960, McGovern ran for South Dakota's other Senate seat in 1962 and won (albeit by a slim margin). As a Senator, McGovern distinguished himself as "dove" opposed to the Vietnam War. In 1968, McGovern launched a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Although this failed amidst the chaos that was the Democratic Convention that year, McGovern ran again and was successful in getting the nomination in 1972. However in the general presidential election, McGovern suffered a historically severe loss, winning only Massachusetts and Washington DC while running against incumbent president Nixon (later it was revealed that Nixon had been involved in wiretapping the Democratic National Committee headquarters, a scandal that ultimately led to Nixon's resignation). In the following years, McGovern served as chair of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs which published a landmark report (known as the McGovern Report) in 1977 outlining nutritional guidelines for Americans. McGovern was defeated in a bid for reelection to the Senate in 1980 and died in 2012.
Near the McGoverns is the resting place of the Gordons.
FG = The last two digits of Maria's death year minus 3.
The last grave you will visit will be that of Patricia Roberts Harris. Born in 1924, Harris attended Howard University and went on to become a Democratic Party official. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson named her Ambassador to Luxumbourg, making her the first African-American woman to be a United States ambassador. After serving in that post for two years, Harris served on the boards of companies such as IBM and Chase Manhattan Bank in the early 1970s. Harris would again serve as a government official in 1977 when Jimmy Carter nominated her to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This made her the first Black woman to serve in a cabinet position and be in the presidential line of succession. Two years later Harris left HUD to become Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), and when the Education Department split from HEW in 1980, Harris continued on as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). After the end of the Carter administration, Harris ran for mayor of D.C. but was defeated in the Democratic primary by incumbent Marion Berry. Harris died in 1985 and the age of 60.
H = The number of letters in the second listed occupation of William Beasley Harris.
The final is a short walk (and even shorter drive away). It can be accessed from both inside and outside of the cemetery.