Congressional Cemetery
1801 E St SE
Washington, DC 20003
Please join us for an in-person and live-streamed book talk with author Kurt Deion hosted at the Historic Congressional Cemetery!
In 2003, nine-year-old presidential enthusiast Kurt Deion presented his father with an audacious request: would he help him follow in the footsteps of historian Richard Norton Smith and C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb by taking him to visit the final resting place of each dead U.S. president? He got all he asked for and more.
Deion’s journey to these tombs, and from elementary school neophyte to college history major, was unorthodox. With his zany, boundary-pushing father at the wheel, the straight-laced youngster found himself sneaking a camera past Secret Service agents, purposely locked in a cemetery enclosed with barbed wire and handcuffed to the former Dallas homicide detective who was tethered to alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald when he was shot by Jack Ruby. Most daringly, he (reluctantly) gained entry to a vice president’s private family burial ground in order to possibly become the lone person to have visited each presidential and vice presidential grave, collectively.
In this history-driven memoir, Deion reconstructs his decade-long, cross-country quest and analyzes the evolution of his perspective on the commanders-in-chief and what it means to visit a cemetery.
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Whether you attend in person or virtually, don’t miss this chance to hear Deion’s incredible story. For more information about the Historic Congressional Cemetery, visit: https://congressionalcemetery.org/.
Speaker Bio:
Fascinated by the U.S. presidents since a young age, Kurt embarked on a mission to visit each chief executive’s burial site. Both his grave quest and his love of history expanded over time.
In 2016 Kurt earned a B.A. in History from Bryant University. He received the Pell Medal for U.S. History, which is presented to one graduating senior from each Rhode Island high school and college who has displayed excellence in the study of United States history. In 2019 Kurt earned an M.A. in History, Public History Track, from the University of Massachusetts Boston.
At age 14 he launched kurtshistoricsites.com as a means to both document his travels and to encourage others to visit gravesites and engage in hands-on history. His website and his cemetery pilgrimages were the subject of a 2015 interview on the C-SPAN show Q&A.
He currently works as an education specialist at Historic Congressional Cemetery and since 2023 has been a White House Historical Association next-gen leader.
