Katharine Lee Bates - Falmouth, MA - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

Katharine Lee Bates was born around the same time that America was gearing up toward civil war. She was also just old enough to remember the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Nevertheless, she went on to write the immensely popular poem ‘America the Beautiful.’

According to Bates, the inspiration for the poem came from a trip she made to Colorado in the summer of 1893. As a professor of English literature at Wellesley in Massachusetts, Bates, along with a few other educators, was asked to come to Colorado Springs to present a special lecture series at Colorado College. Along the way she made stops at Niagara Falls and the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. But it was a trek via horse-drawn wagons and mules to the top of Pike’s Peak that provided the ultimate spark. She would later write of the experience: “It was then and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.”

The poem was first published in 1895. It has been sung to many different tunes including Auld Lang Syne which fits the verse exactly. By 1910, Bates had republished the poem after some modifications, and it was officially set to the tune of Samuel A. Ward’s “Materna,” becoming the song as we know it today.

Katharine Lee Bates was a prolific writer producing many volumes of poetry, commentary on literature, children’s books and accounts of her many travels abroad. She died at her home in Wellesley and was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in her hometown of Falmouth.
(Sources: wikipedia.org, songhall.org)

Description: The headstone is relatively new being placed by the town of Falmouth. Originally there was only the stone monument seen behind the headstone. Date of birth: 08/12/1859 Date of death: 03/28/1929 Area of notoriety: Literature Marker Type: Headstone Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: none Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

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