It’s time for my annual look back at the many photo ceramic portraits found at Chicagoland cemeteries. There are so many because of Oak Park's J.A. Dedouch Company, which began in 1893. It quickly became the most popular manufacturer of tombstone pictures, known as "Dedos."

Chicago’s Bohemian National Cemetery has thousands of Dedos.

It’s also the final resting place for 150 victims of the Eastland Disaster, like Katerina “Kathryn” Ivanecky who worked as a stenographer at Western Electric. She was just 19 yrs old when she died on July 24, 1915.

Also at Bohemian National:

Jan Soucek (1858-1910)
Frantiska Soucek (1866-1939)
L.R. Soucek (1898-1925)

LeRoy S. Lallak (1913-1922)

If you ever visit Bohemian National, make sure to go inside the Columbarium/Crematorium building, added in 1913. You won’t see Dedos specifically but there are still many photos and other mementos of the individuals whose ashes are stored in the niches.

Now moving along to Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside to bring you these photo ceramics of two brothers, Albert (1926-30) and Chester Jr. (1928-30) Stumpo.

Albert died Jan. 11 and Chester followed a month later on Feb. 12. So sad.

Nice to see some smiling portraits. I always wonder what their life was like and what happened to them. Pieces of history in our cemeteries. Anyway, might (or not) continue this thread tomorrow.