Dean Back Home

James Dean’s tombstone is back where it belongs. Nearly a month after the actor’s tombstone was stolen and found dumped on a county road, workers reinstalled it Wednesday at Park Cemetery in Fairmount, Ind., a farming community of 3,000 where Dean grew up. The tombstone was reported missing July 14. Two days later, it was recovered by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy who rammed into it with his car on a road about 60 miles from Dean’s grave. Dean, who starred in “East of Eden,” “Giant” and “Rebel Without a Cause,” was killed in a car crash in California on Sept. 30, 1955, at age 24. His grave draws thousands of visitors each year. Police have made no arrests in the theft. The original tombstone was stolen in April 1983, recovered the next month, then stolen again that August. The present stone replaced the original.