When the AIDS crisis hit in the 1980s, Ruth Coker Burks — who’d inherited 262 plots in a family cemetery in Hot Springs, Arkansas — became a mother of sorts to countless sons, many abandoned by families and churches because they were suffering from what was then called “the gay cancer” — and in many cases she gave them a final resting place. Seth Doane reports on the woman who has been called “The Cemetery Angel,” who gave – and received — so many precious gifts. (This report, originally broadcast December 1, 2019, received an Excellence in Journalism Award from NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists.)
