Longtime gravedigger ‘coexists’ with the dead

Gravedigger Ted Campbell, of East Sonora, has dug graves for the past 24 years. Here, he stands in a grave he dug in a Murphys cemetery. Amy Alonzo Rozak/Union Democrat, copyright 2009

“It’s like we’re buddies, we coexist in the graveyard. We’re both meant to be there,” he said.
   

“I’ve always felt in my situation they would be benevolent to the gravedigger because I’m helping their side out. Why would the dead be upset with a gravedigger? If nothing else, I think they would want to grab a shovel and help.”

For the past 24 years, Campbell — a 58-year-old East Sonora man — has dug graves throughout a seven-county radius, including Tuolumne and Calaveras.

"You get a lot of time to think while out here digging graves,” he said, standing among tombstones in a Murphys cemetery earlier this week. “I’ve probably buried about 3,000 people by now.”

Campbell dug five graves last week, including two in Knights Ferry and one in the tiny town of Milton. With the occasional exception, Campbell said he digs all of the graves in Calaveras County.

Campbell said grave-digging is more complicated than most people think.

The mortuary notifies Campbell after a person dies. He then typically calls the sexton — the person who marks the grave — to find out the exact location of the gravesite.

Campbell uses sticks to draw an outline so that he can dig the grave within the perimeter of the plot.

At least half the graves Campbell digs are done by hand, as they are in old hillside cemeteries surrounded by other graves. Machinery is used for the other half.

It takes him an average of six hours to hand-shovel a grave by himself.

On the day of the funeral, Campbell returns to place a wooden frame over the hole to support the casket. He then puts a cover over the grave before getting out equipment that helps lower the casket.

At funerals, some people want to help him shovel dirt back into the grave as a form of closure, while others are “more interested in themselves than the deceased,” Campbell said.

“The thing I realize is that anyone — no one’s excluded — can die just about any time in any way,” he said. “People might think they’re special, but they’re not. I bury so many people younger than I am.”

Campbell said the toughest part of his job is burying teenagers and especially babies.    

“The last baby I buried was a couple of years ago in Snelling,” he said. “I try to make it a practice to donate my services for a baby. It’s heartrending to bury a baby, having the mom and dad there. It’s one thing if I’m burying someone who lived to be 101. For babies, it’s different.”

A couple times a year Campbell does disinterments — digging up the dead to rebury them elsewhere.  

“It’s something I’d rather not do, but it’s part of the job,” he said.

Disinterments can happen for a variety of reasons, such as the deceased being buried in the wrong plot.

“I dug one where the family moved to Alaska and they wanted to take the casket with them,” he said.

There’s much more to Campbell — a tan, trim guy with a big smile — than just digging graves.

He and his wife, Cheryl, have a home on six acres —a half-acre of which is dedicated to growing vegetables. He grew hops for the now-closed Lumberyard Brewing Co. in Standard, often trading hops for beer.

Something else Campbell does that doesn’t fit with the image of a stereotypically grim gravedigger is dressing up as a woman for Halloween.

“I like to be as realistic as I can,” he said. “I usually get someone to do my make-up, someone who knows what they’re doing.”

His efforts have earned him at least two costume prizes.

Campbell has four children from a previous marriage. They live in West Hollywood, Oregon, Utah and Hawaii, but he doesn’t get to go visit them much.

“Gravediggers don’t get many vacations,” he said. “It’s a job that doesn’t go away — it’s always there.”

Campbell was a firefighter and a logger before becoming a full-time gravedigger in 1985.

How busy he is depends on how many people are dying.

Sometimes he can work a month without a day off, while other times he can have up to two weeks off. He’s dug graves in the rain, snow and even in the middle of the night.

Campbell said certain times of the year, such as the first heat wave, people tend to die more often.

“With the holidays, it seems people are stressed and that causes them to check out more often,” he said.

The economy has had some effect on business, as more people are opting to be cremated because it’s cheaper, he said.

Campbell said he plans to buy plots for himself and his wife at Buena Vista Cemetery in Murphys, where oak and pine trees shade the graveyard.    

“I want a full burial and she wants to be cremated,” he said. “Hopefully, my kids can dig my grave. They’ve done the work before — they know what it entails.”