Mountain View cemetery featured in TLC episode

“TLC is a national cable channel owned by Discovery. It focuses on reality style personal stories of educational value. The show’s angle is to follow a famous person’s lineage to find surprising stories. In this case, that Tony Goldwyn, the actor who played the villain in ‘Ghost’ and is currently the star of ABC’s ‘Scandal’ (as the President of the United States), is descended not only from film mogul Samuel Goldwyn on his father’s side, but also Sidney Coe Howard on his mother’s side. Howard was the Academy Award winning screenwriter best known for writing the screenplay for ‘Gone with the Wind.’

“The TLC episode dramatically follows the actor across the country where he learns that Mary Coe, his third great grand mother and wife of Nathaniel Coe, was an early political activist.

“He learns that Nathaniel, as a member of the New York state legislature, championed her causes and was a great supporter of women’s rights nearly a hundred years before women were given the vote. The show concludes with the Coe’s brave move to Oregon, calling the Hood River valley the most beautiful spot on earth.

“The show also praises Coe, an avid amateur botanist, for planting the first fruit trees and developing the valley into a commercial center.”

Tim Farrell managed the Mountain View Memorial Cemetery from 1991 until 2014. He was a leader in the state’s Cemetery Association of Oregon for many years.

He now lives and works as an attorney and lobbyist in Washington, DC. In his spare time he volunteers at the National Botanic Garden.