Woodlawn's Gift
Inscription of Emperor Norton’s Headstone Restored After Decades of Wear
When I launched The Emperor Norton Trust in September 2013, and for several years after that, I lived in the southwest corner of San Francisco — about a 5-minute drive from Woodlawn cemetery, where Emperor Norton is buried. So, I visited the Emperor’s grave often.
One of the first things I noticed about the headstone was that many of the deeply engraved letters showed the faintest hints of faded gold — as if to suggest ghostly traces of earlier gilding.
Here’s a photograph showing the stone the day it was dedicated on 30 June 1934.
Dedication ceremony for reburial of Emperor Norton, with new headstone, in Woodlawn cemetery, Colma, Calif., 30 June 1934. Source: Jewish Museum of the American West.
You can see that the inscription really “pops.” The most obvious explanation for this is that the type was overlaid with gold. In 1934, this would have been done by hand-gilding with real gold leaf.
Here’s another photograph of the stone, from 1989 or 1990.
Traditional hand-gilding can last for decades. So, it’s possible that this photo shows the original gilding. But, by the time I took the following photographs 25 years later, in March 2016, the inscription mostly was worn bare, except for the aforementioned vestiges of gold as well as noticeable spots of mossy green film borne of the stone’s years-long exposure to sea air.
Details of Emperor Norton’s headstone, March 2016. Photographs: John Lumea
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NEARLY THREE YEARS LATER, in January 2019, Emperor Norton’s headstone told the same story.
And, a video of the headstone posted live to Facebook 16 months later, on 14 May 2020, showed the inscription still in its weathered state.
But, this past summer, a 6-second video clip of the headstone taken at an E Clampus Vitus event held on 26 June 2021 appeared to show the inscription looking decidedly spiffier.
When compared with the video from May 2020, this video tells us that the Emperor’s stone received some love sometime between mid May 2020 and late June 2021.
Here’s a photo taken by our friend Jonathan Robert Pamplin this past July.
Emperor Norton’s headstone, July 2021. Photograph: Jonathan Robert Pamplin
Although, in 2016, I had approached both Woodlawn and potential project partners with the idea of restoring the headstone, I’d not found a receptive audience. The Emperor Norton Trust had not done any work on the stone.
When I started asking around, Yerba Buena No. 1 of E Clampus Vitus — the San Francisco chapter of the Clampers, which leads a pilgrimage to the Emperor’s grave every January (in off-pandemic years!) — had nothing.
So, I turned my attention to the Imperial Council of San Francisco. The Imperial Council is the “mother court” of the social and philanthropic Imperial Court system founded by José Sarria (1922–2013), the self-styled “Widow Norton,” whose grave — with its headstone modeled on Emperor Norton’s — is adjacent to the Emperor’s. The Council leads its own pilgrimage to the two graves every February.
The Imperial Council initially claimed credit for the restoration — but, it now seems possible that leaders there misunderstood my question, thinking that I was referring to Sarria’s headstone rather than the Emperor’s.
Finally, Hector Gonzalez, the general manager at Woodlawn, confirmed that — at his direction —Woodlawn did the restoration on 13 May 2021.
Lest anyone miss the significance: This may be the first time the inscription on the Emperor’s headstone has seen fresh gold since the stone was dedicated in 1934.
Thank you to Hector Gonzalez and to Woodlawn cemetery for this generous gesture in care of Emperor Norton’s legacy.
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CORRECTION — 23 November 2021
One does the best one can with the information one is given.
And, sometimes, when the information is confirmed and corroborated by multiple sources, one does what a reporter does: report.
So it was that my recent story (above) about the restoration of Emperor Norton's headstone at Woodlawn cemetery, in Colma, Calif., credited the restoration to members of the Imperial Council of San Francisco — and the funding of this project to Ron Ross. (As many know, Ron is the founder and longtime president of the San Francisco History Association. He also has a deep relationship with the Imperial Council, having been crowned Mr. Gay San Francisco in 1975 (see Ron speaking about the experience in the lovely video clip here).)
This turns out to have been incorrect on both counts.
Hector Gonzalez, the general manager at Woodlawn, confirms that the restoration was undertaken and completed by Woodlawn on 13 May 2021.
I have revised and retitled my original article to reflect this.
Ron confesses to being flattered by the error. The truth is: Ron Ross has been a friend of the Emperor for decades — and, his funding of the headstone restoration would have been "of a piece" with that distinguished record. But, the fact that Ron's benevolent fingerprints are not on this particular project does not in any possible way diminish his legacy of tribute to the Emperor Norton. Ron has paid his "taxes" to the Emp many times over.
My apologies to Ron and to the Imperial Council for the misunderstanding.
Thanks to Joseph Amster for following up on this story — and especially to Hector Gonzalez for leading the restoration and confirming the details. —John Lumea
UPDATE — 18 November 2021
When I wrote and published this piece a couple of weeks ago, the latest visual documentation I'd been able to find of the unrestored headstone was from January 2019. And, the first visual documentation of the restored headstone was from 26 June 2021.
But, I just discovered a video recorded on 14 May 2020 that shows the headstone still unrestored.
This narrows the window for the restoration and tells us that the work was done sometime between mid May 2020 and late June 2021.
I’ve added this information, including a link to the May 2020 video, to the piece.
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