Rick Sebak produces, writes and narrates documentaries for WQED tv13, as well as national specials for PBS. His programs are available online or call 800/274-1307.

For those who follow the lifestyles of the rich and famous, a trip to Homewood Cemetery offers a chance to see the final address of families such as Mellon, Frick, Benedum, Heinz and others.

If you're in a 19th-century mood, however, there may be no better place than Allegheny Cemetery. Originally incorporated in 1844, this was the sixth of the great American rural garden cemeteries. It's a world-class burial place with grand entrances, winding roads, lots of trees and the tombs of many local notables including abolitionist Charles Avery, industrialist Henry Oliver and Pittsburgh Plate Glass co-founder John B. Ford. You'll find monuments and mausoleums for everyone from department-store magnate Joseph Horne and legendary performer Lillian Russell to local actor and entertainer "Chef" Don Brockett.

Right: One of the most poignant reminders of mortality and loss is "Motherless," a sculpture by George A. Lawson that graces the lawn near the James R. Mellon mausoleum in Homewood Cemetery.

Probably the most famous person buried at Allegheny is the great American composer Stephen Foster, still popular and beloved by singers and songwriters around the world. Signs in the cemetery point the way to his grave in Section 21 (pick up a map at the office or just follow the double-green line on the road), where his modest marker is actually a replica of the original, which deteriorated years ago. Foster fans stop at this grave every year on the anniversary of his death, Jan. 13, to acknowledge his enduring musical contributions and to give him recognition he never really received during his lifetime. Foster's father, William B. Foster, the man who founded Lawrenceville, is also buried there, beside his famous son.

In Section 17, there's a monument to honor 43 young women who died in the disastrous explosion at Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville while making munitions for the Civil War.

Civil War soldiers (and veterans from many other wars) are peacefully at rest in Allegheny. Many major-league baseball players are relaxing in this Big Dugout as well, including the legendary Negro League's slugger Josh Gibson, who played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays. He died of a stroke when he was 35. It's also interesting that although Andrew Carnegie chose to bury both of his parents at Allegheny Cemetery, his own body was buried at a cemetery in Tarrytown, N.Y. Some Pittsburghers may assume he's moldering somewhere back in Scotland.

In the Chambers-Rodgers family plot at Allegheny, you can pay your respects to one of my favorite Pittsburgh heroes, pioneer aviator Calbraith Perry Rodgers (1871-1912), the first person to fly coast-to-coast across America. In 1911, it took Rodgers 49 days to fly from Long Island to Pasadena, with at least 15 major crashes along the way in his biplane, the Vin Fiz (an airplane assembled from original parts is on display at the Smithsonian; and a model is featured in the miniature railroad display at Carnegie Science Center).

Before you leave Allegheny, try to find Lester Madden's monument. Madden loved the movie Jaws, and his tombstone has the film's sharp-toothed shark head carved on it. It's an odd marker in this stately old cemetery, but I love its wackiness. I hope it lasts long enough so someone might see it and think old Lester himself was eaten by a shark.

Left: You can jump the shark, so to speak, at this unique monument in Allegheny Cemetery. It affectionately remembers Lester Madden, a man who loved the movie Jaws.

Pittsburgh was growing fast in the mid-19th century, and by the late 1870s, the city was ready for another major cemetery. Land was acquired on the eastern edge of Squirrel Hill, where the Wilkins family had its estate, called "Homewood." Homewood Cemetery became an important and beautiful place in which to be buried, one of a new style of cemetery called a "lawn park," with careful landscaping and new rules about what sorts of monuments, enclosures and activities would be permitted.

Stop by the office - located at the main gate on Dallas Street - to pick up a map and take a $1 walking tour to help you locate the really rich and famous folks who've ended up here. We're talking big Pittsburgh names. H.J. Heinz and his descendents are here. Henry Clay Frick and family, too. You can find Michael Benedum (who found oil all over the world), David L. Clark (who made Clark bars), Erroll Garner (who wrote "Misty"), Edwin Ruud (who invented the automatic water heater) and Pie Traynor (who may have been the best Pirates third baseman ever). George Mesta, founder of the mighty Mesta Machine Co. in West Homestead, is here with his much-celebrated wife, Perle, the fabled "hostess with the mostest," who wasn't very fond of Pittsburgh but who nevertheless ended up here forever.

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