Grave of Mother Jones
Mount Olive, Illinois
Mother Jones died in 1930, before working people had the cash and free time to take vacations on The Mother Road. But the elaborate grave monument of the gray-haired labor activist can be glimpsed from Route 66.
Mother Jones lived to be 100, and spent her Golden Years fighting for the rights of the laboring class, particularly miners. She's buried in a miners cemetery with the victims of the "Battle of Virden," one of many miner vs. mine owner mini-wars at the turn of the 20th century. Her memorial shaft -- by far the largest in the graveyard -- is flanked by life-size bronze statues of a miner and a factory worker.