Tour Through Cemetery Designed To Chill And Haunt

PONTIAC (WWJ) - Do you have what it takes to walk through a 150-year-old cemetery?

Nancy Calindine is organizing several walks through Mt. Hope Historical Cemetery in Pontiac this weekend.

Calindine says there are some big names buried there ... like former Red Wings goalie and Hall of Famer Terry Sawchuk, who died at the age of just 41.

"He was kind of a wild and crazy guy, he died under mysterious circumstances," says Calindine of Sawchuk. "He was actually in a brawl the night before and, I think, his spleen or gallbladder burst and he died the very next day."

She says much of the tour is about history rather than horror; telling the tales of the people buried in the cemetery like Timothy Sullivan who started the Sullivan and O'Brien Funeral Home.

"He was an undertaker ... in Detroit, in his spare time he owned a movie theater and as a hobby he equipment. When he porters would be carrying a casket off the train and he would throw his voice and holler 'let me out of here,'" Calindine says. "He was a real character, a real comedian, and we're going to have somebody portraying him."

Local residents dressed in period dress will concentrate on six people buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery.

Tours begin at 3, 4 and 5 o'clock at the Murphy House Bed & Breakfast on Saturday with proceeds benefiting the cemetery on Orchard Lake Road.