The WOMEN BURIED IN THE BODIE CEMETERY

THE WOMEN BURIED IN THE BODIE CEMETERY
In death, the women who lived in Bodie are identified by their marriages. The "WIFE OF" social status was so important it was engraved on their headstone. (Their own "given name" could not have gotten them buried in the cemetery.) Their husbands membership with his "fraternal brotherhood" is WHY the family could afford to bury them in the proper Bodie Cemetery.
The BODIE MINERS' UNION or Masonic Lodge "Death Benefit Clause" was used for their spouses burial. This "FRATERNAL ASSOCIATION" also meant that their husbands membership was current and dues paid, or they would NOT have been buried with such a costly "undertaking of the body," a casket-viewing of the body, a funeral, a grave-site service, a carved headstone and a fence surrounding the plot.