J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson are buried in Congressional Cemetery not “nearby” but rather in plots as close to each other as was possible, due to availability, shortly after Hoover’s death.

Clyde Tolson purchased plot 156, in August of 1972, just three short months after the passing of Hoover.

The Hoover plots 117-120 (range 20) were purchased by J. Edgar’s father, Dickerson Hoover, in 1893. The adjacent plots had mostly sold by the 1890′s with the last plot having sold in the 1920′s.

Fritz Lehman, former caretaker at Congressional Cemetery, shared with colleagues his story of Hoover and Tolson coming together to Congressional Cemetery many years earlier seeking a plot for Clyde. Tolson died in April of 1975, thus making his purchase of plot 156 almost three years in advance of his demise.

Just five plots down from Tolson, at plot 161, Leonard Matlovich has his final resting place. Matlovich has had in death, as he did in life, a lasting impact on society. Leonard was one of the first to challenge the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the military.

Leonard Matlovich’s grave is the most visited site in Congressional Cemetery. His headstone, and monument, bears many stones in honor and homage to his struggles, leadership, and victory. His grave has been the site of gay weddings and other celebrations of the progress of the LGBTQ communities.

Initially Matlovich acquired the plot with the intent of erecting a monument to Harvey Milk. Let us imagine Leonard saw great poetic justice in placing a monument to the slain gay civil rights leader just a few graves away from Tolson and Hoover.

Harvey Milk, per families’ wishes, was buried in California. Thus Leonard Matlovich was laid to rest in the beautiful corner plot following his death from acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Matlovich’s marker, featuring two pink triangles, in reference to the badge of identification forced upon homosexuals in the death camps of the German Third Reich, reads:

“When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”

As a recipient of both the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, for services rendered as an Air Force Sergeant, and Vietnam Veteran, his tombstone does not bear his name. Rather, Matlovitch intended the grave as a memorial for all gay veterans; a literal tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.