Madam C. J. Walker

Birth Name:

Sarah Breedlove

Birth Date:

December 23, 1867

Birth Place:

Delta, Fifth Military District, Louisiana

Death Date:

May 25, 1919

Place of Death:

Villa Lewaro (Madam C. J. Walker Estate), 67 N Broadway, Irvington, New York

Age:

Cause of Death:

Hypertension

Cemetery Name:

Woodlawn Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Business and Finance

Madam C. J. Walker, an African-American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a political and social activist who was the first female self-made millionaire in the United States. She became one of the wealthiest self-made women in America and one of the most successful women and African-American business owners in history. Walker's fortune was founded on her developing and marketing a line of beauty and hair products for black women.

Fun Fact

Madam Walker is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first self-made American woman millionaire, who neither inherited her money or married someone who was a millionaire. At the time of her death, Madam Walker’s estate had an estimated value of $600,000 to $700,000 (equivalent to approximately $8.9 million to $10.4 million in 2020 dollars according to the CPI Inflation Calculator). The total sales of her company, the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, during the final year of her life reached more than $500,000, making the value of her company several times that amount. The combination of her personal assets (real estate, furnishings, jewelry, etc.) and the value of her business was well over $1,000,000 (equivalent to $14.9 million in 2020).

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Woodlawn Cemetery

4199 Webster Avenue

Bronx, New York, 10470

USA

North America

Map:

Grave Location:

Butternut, Section 141, Plot 14052

Grave Location Description

From the Jerome Avenue entrance drive straight ahead on Central Avenue. Turn left onto Park Avenue and head north for about 0.4 miles. Park your car at the intersection of Park Avenue and Filbert Avenue. Walk between the James mausoleum and the Miller mausoleum about 12 rows into the Butternut section for the final resting place of Madam C. J. Walker.

Grave Location GPS

40.893452, -73.877396

Photos:

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Videos Featuring Madam C. J. Walker:

The True Story of Madam C.J. Walker: Two Dollars and a Dream

Madam CJ Walker - First Female Millionaire - 10 Things to Know

Meet the First Self-Made Female Millionaire

Madam CJ Walker - Successful Business Woman

Madam CJ Walker - Early Life Biography

Business Ideas - 3 Success Lessons from Madam CJ Walker

A'Lelia Bundles, telling the story of Madam CJ Walker

The Spirit of Madam C.J. Walker Lives on at Villa Lewaro

Tour of inside of Madam CJ Walker's Estate, Villa Lewaro

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Sarah Winchester

popular name: Sarah Winchester

date_of_death: September 5, 1922

age: 83

cause_of_death: Congestive heart failure

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Sarah Winchester was an American heiress who amassed great wealth after the death of her husband, William Wirt Winchester (son of Winchester Repeating Arms Company founder Oliver Winchester). Her inheritance included $20 million ($606.5 million in 2022) as well as a 50% holding in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, which made her one of the wealthiest women in the world at the time. Sarah Winchester was, supposedly, so racked with guilt and haunted by the spirits of those killed by the Winchester firearms that she started building a house in California because a medium advised her that endless building would appease the dead. Construction, which continued 24 hours per day 7 days a week, only stopped when she died. The only problem with this narrative is that it is 100% completely false. And to make matters worse, the owners of the Winchester Mystery House continue to this day to repeat this myth to thousands of visitors every day to the home in San Jose. The fact of the matter is Sarah Winchester was not a crazy, guilt-ridden millionaire who sought guidence from ghost whispers, but rather she was highly educated, spoke multiple languages fluently, and moved to California for her health. She purchased a modest (by her standards) farmhouse and started work on her architectual marval. Aside from its immense size and Victorian style architecture, the House has a number of unique characteristics. To begin, it is undeniably a labyrinth. There are literally miles of maze-like corridors and twisting hallways, some of which have dead ends—forcing the traveler to turn around and back-up. There are also some centrally located passages and stairways that serve as shortcuts allowing a virtual leap from one side of the House to the other. Although Sarah’s labyrinthine House serves the same function as the ancient prototypes, her labyrinth is more a symbolic introductory step into her puzzle. The greatest test for the initiate lies in his ability to understand and identify Mrs. Winchester’s remarkable mix of symbols and numbered code. Sarah’s love of Geometry and specific symmetric numbers is prominently displayed throughout the House. When Winchester died in 1922 the house had 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens.