Jerome Kern

AKA:

The Father of the Broadway Musical

Birth Name:

Jerome David Kern

Birth Date:

January 27, 1885

Birth Place:

New York, New York

Death Date:

November 11, 1945

Place of Death:

Doctors Hospital, Manhattan, New York

Age:

Cause of Death:

Cerebral hemorrhage

Cemetery Name:

Ferncliff Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Music

If he had only written the score for Showboat, Jerome Kern's position as a musical genius would be secure. Instead he also wrote Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, The Way You Look Tonight and countless other songs for Broadway and the movies. Later in life he worked in Hollywood with Dorothy Fields and Johnny Mercer, creating Oscar-winning works with the films Swingtime and Lady Be Good. While in Hollywood Kern wrote hit songs for Dinah Shore, Glenn Miller, Peggy Lee and Bing Crosby. It all came to a sudden end when while walking to rehearsals for a revival of Showboat he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while walking at the corner of Park Avenue and 57th Street. He never regained consciousness and his long-time friend Oscar Hammerstein II remained at his side until his death six days later, all the while humming one of Kern’s favorite songs they had written together, “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star”.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Ferncliff Cemetery

280 Secor Road

Hartsdale, New York, 10530

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale New York

Grave Location:

Unit 4, Alcove C, Private Memorial Niche 1

Grave Location Description

As you enter through the gold doors of the Ferncliff Cemetery Mausoleum, turn right at the first hallway, then left, then right again. Walk down the hall two niches and turn right. Kern’s marble wall unit is at eye level in Unit 4, Alcove C.