McGovern To Be Buried In Historic Cemetery

George McGovern will be laid to rest alongside his wife Eleanor and daughter Terry at a Washington, D.C. cemetery that's steeped in political history.
 
Eleanor McGovern was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in 2007.  Their daughter Terry was buried there in 1994. 

Rock Creek is the eternal home of many political dignitaries that soon will include South Dakota's George McGovern.

Rock Creek is Washington, D.C.'s oldest cemetery, going back three centuries, pre-dating the nation's independence by six decades.  It's 86 acre park-like landscape offers a serene refuge from the political intensity of Capitol Hill, located just 15 minutes away.  Presidential cabinet members and even a signer of the U.S. Constitution are buried there.
    
The cemetery is filled with ornate monuments, including a statue by Gutzon Borglum, who would later carve Mt. Rushmore.  Borglum's 1909 bronze sculpture of Mary Magdalene is displayed at the grave of a prominent Washington banker.

Famed author and playwright Gore Vidal, whose father was born in Madison, South Dakota, has a plot at Rock Creek.  Vidal died earlier this year, but his cremated remains have yet to be buried here. Vidal and George McGovern had overlapping literary pursuits: both wrote books about President Abraham Lincoln.

President Lincoln spent the hot Washington summers at a cool cottage at the Soldiers' Home, which is located across the street from Rock Creek.
    
Network newsman Tim Russert, who died in 2008, is also buried at the cemetery.