GAFFNEY, SC (WSPA) – Fans of the Netflix series “House of Cards” can visit where Francis ‘Frank’ Underwood’s was laid to rest.
“I told my housemate we’re making a road trip to Gaffney this afternoon,” Jim Savage said Monday. He drove to Gaffney from the Cowpens area. “To pay my respects to President Underwood and to get a couple of photographs and have some of this history. ”
There’s a headstone at a cemetery in Gaffney for ‘Francis J. Underwood – the 46th president of the United States.’
Underwood is the fictional politician in the Netflix series House of Cards, played by actor Kevin Spacey. In the show, Gaffney is Underwood’s hometown.
“House of Cards has generated a lot of interest and brought a lot of people to Gaffney, South Carolina,” said Gaffney Mayor Henry Jolly. “We do have people who’ve come from all over the country here to just see about Gaffney and we’ve had people that wanted to know if the Peachoid was real.”
The side-by-side headstones for Underwood and his father are real, but the graves are not.
Gaffney marketing director LeighAnn Scnuggs said an ad agency for Netflix reached out in August looking for a historic cemetery that looks similar to what’s in the show. She said city-owned Oakland Cemetery at College Drive and Union Street fit the bill.
“Sort of away from the rest of the cemetery,” said Mayor Jolly, adding the headstones’ location are set to not disturb the other part of the cemetery.
There was an obituary for Underwood in the Gaffney Ledger, and Bookshelf Florist and Gifts will place white tulips at the grave site every two or three days.
“It’s terribly exciting,” said store owner Laura Agapion.”I think people get it and I think they enjoy it.”
The series returned Friday without its former lead after multiple accusations of sexual assault against Spacey.
“This is not about Kevin. This is about Frank – this is about a character,” said Agapion.
Mayor Jolly said they hope the site attracts more visitors to the area.
“There’s good and bad in everything and we don’t want anything but good to come out for our community and we think this would be good for our community,” Mayor Jolly said.
City officials say it’s been months in the works but they had to keep it under wraps the headstones were revealed when the new season premiered on Netflix.
The mayor says it’ll be there a couple months or it could be longer.
