PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A fundraising campaign to help save Benjamin Franklin’s damaged gravestone is no longer livin’ on a prayer.
Rocker Jon bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, on Tuesday donated $5,000 to the Christ Church Preservation Trust to quickly push it past its $10,000 goal.
The marble ledger tablet marking Franklin’s grave at Philadelphia’s Christ Church Burial Ground has developed a significant crack on top of the pitting caused by the ritual of tossing pennies onto Franklin’s grave.
Thousands of coins are thrown onto the marker each year in a tribute to Franklin’s adage, “a penny saved, is a penny earned.”
Franklin, who died in 1790, is one of seven signers of the Declaration of Independence buried across from Independence Mall.