The Mark Twain Family Gravesite – Woodlawn Cemetery, Elmira, New York

Langdon Clemens (eighteen months) the first member of the Clemens family to be buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery, died of diphtheria. He rests near his grandmother and grandfather. Olivia Susan Clemens (24 years) first of three daughters, passed away unexpectedly of spinal meningitis while Clemens and Olivia were abroad. Of her death, Clemens wrote, "It is one of the mysteries of our nature that a man, all unprepared, can be struck by a thunder-stroke like that and live." Olivia Louise Langdon, Clemens’s wife (59 years) died in Florence, Italy. The reference to "ashes" on her stone is symbolic. Jane Lampton Clemens, called "Jean" (29 years) suffered from epilepsy from adolescence onward. She drowned in the bathtub on Christmas Eve morning. Clara Clemens Grabilowitsch Samossoud, the only surviving child, married Ossip Grabilowitsch, a Russian pianist who became the Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Together, they had Clemens’ only grandchild, Nina Gabrilowitsch. Ossip requested that he be buried at the feet of his father-in-law. Following Ossip’s death (58 years) Clara married a French musician, Jacques Sammosoud. The grand-daughter, Nina (56) never married and died of a drug overdose in Hollywood, California. Other family members buried here include Charles Jervis Langdon, his family and descendants, and Susan and Theodore Crane.


The large Westerly granite shaft depicting the images of Samuel Clemens and Ossip Grabilowitsch, erected by Clara Clemens and designed by Ernfred Anderson, weighs eight tons. The Langdon family monument, central to the plot, contains four religious symbols: Alpha and Omega; the symbol of the Trinity; the monogram meaning "In His Sign;" and a formee cross. Samuel Clemens chose the inscriptions on the Stones of Susy, Jean, and Olivia.