Sharon Pajka

Monday, April 28, 2025

Anne Spencer Exhibit and Rare Book School at the University of Virginia

Friday an amazing day at the University of Virginia with the Anne Spencer Exhibit and Rare Book School!

The lectures were fascinating, and I had the joy of meeting Shaun, Anne Spencer’s granddaughter. I also caught up with my former professor, Alison Booth — and I hardly recognized the school grounds!

Anne Spencer was an American poet and civil rights activist, a powerful voice of the Harlem Renaissance, and the second African American author included in the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. Her Lynchburg home was a vital gathering place for luminaries like Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King Jr.

A librarian, writer, and activist, Spencer’s story reminds us of the lasting power of words and the importance of creating spaces for dialogue, creativity, and resistance. For those passionate about literary history, her papers are preserved at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia — a treasure trove of her writing, correspondence, and personal history.

If you ever find yourself near Lynchburg, don't miss the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum — a beautifully preserved testament to her life and legacy. And, as a cemetery historian, I encourage you to visit her grave that is nearby. She is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia, alongside her husband Edward and their family. Their son, Chauncey Edward Spencer — one of the pioneering aviators who helped pave the way for the Tuskegee Airmen — rests there as well. The Spencers' grave is marked by a slant stone. Ms. Spencer's epitaph reads Anne Spencer- Poet, a quiet tribute to a remarkable life and legacy.

Feeling inspired and grateful to have spent the day immersed in her world.

Monday, April 21, 2025

📰 Ghosts, Gravestones, and the Stories in Between 👻

I spent the last year walking among Virginia’s oldest cemeteries—listening to whispers from history, flipping through old newspapers, and collecting ghost stories that won’t let go. Now I’ve gathered them all in one haunted volume.I’ve always believed cemeteries have stories to tell—some carved into stone, others hidden in whispers and weathered newspaper clippings. After years of wandering Virginia’s most fascinating, unsettling, and sacred burial grounds, I’m thrilled (and slightly spooked) to share this This isn’t just a ghost story collection. It’s a journey through forgotten headlines, folklore, and sacred spaces across the Commonwealth—retelling ghostly encounters that are as much about memory as they are about mystery.

You’ll meet:

A president who still whistles in the cemetery
Spirits tied to a bathtub murder that made national headlines in 1909
A house built from Union soldiers’ tombstones (!?)
A haunted pet cemetery
A gravestone struck by lightning—three times
Civil War ghosts still visiting their brothers’ graves

Many of these stories come directly from newspaper archives and local oral traditions. Some are tragic. Some are bizarre. And some—like the 1902 ghost that startled a man cutting through a cemetery at night—are almost comically eerie.

In the book, I take you along for the ride. We start in Central Virginia and circle the entire state—from the eerie elegance of Arlington National Cemetery to Appalachian cemeteries rich in folk art and mining tragedy.
I even share a few of my own experiences staying in haunted inns and walking the Appalachian Trail with a slightly racing heart.

So, what’s this book really about?
Yes, it’s about ghosts. But it’s also about:
What we remember—and what we forget
The rituals of mourning and place
How folklore helps preserve history
And why some stories demand to be retold

🪦 Until then…
I’ll be posting ghost story snippets, behind-the-scenes cemetery pics, and weird Virginia trivia right here in your inbox over the coming months.