Van Zandt, Townes
Music
Age 52
March 7, 1944 - January 1, 1997
Dido Cemetery / Fort Worth / Texas / USA / North America
He was a reckless drunk and a hopeless idealist, but he is considered by many the greatest Texas songwriter of his generation. He wrote numerous songs, such as "Pancho and Lefty", "For the Sake of the Song", "Tecumseh Valley", "Re...
Vanderbilt, Cornelius
Business and Finance
Age 82
May 27, 1794 - January 4, 1877
Vanderbilt Mausoleum and Cemetery / Staten Island / New York / USA / North America
The Vanderbilt name is synonymous with America’s Gilded Age. Upon their deaths, “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt, who established the family’s fortune, and his son William H., who doubled it in just a few years, were the w...
Vanderbilt, Harold Stirling
Business and Finance
Age 85
July 6, 1884 - July 4, 1970
Saint Mary's Episcopal Churchyard and Cemetery / Portsmouth / Rhode Island / USA / North America
Harold Stirling Vanderbilt was an American railroad executive, a champion yachtsman, an innovator and champion player of contract bridge, and a member of the Vanderbilt family. Vanderbilt was a director of the New York Central Rai...
Vauban, Marquis de
Historical Figure
Age 73
May 1, 1633 - March 30, 1707
Saint-Hilaire Church / Bazoches / Bourgogne / France / Europe
Marquis de Vauban was a French military engineer who revolutionized the art of siege craft and defensive fortifications. He fought in all of France's wars of Louis XIV's reign (1643–1715). He is generally considered the greatest...
Vaughan, Stevie Ray
Music
Age 35
October 3, 1954 - August 27, 1990
Laurel Land Cemetery / Dallas / Texas / USA / North America
With bristling chops and fiery phrasing, guitarist and bona fide Texas blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan did not so much reinvent the blues as add a renewed passion. A master of fills, intros and imaginative solos, he created pierci...
Vealey, R.J.
Music
Age 37
September 29, 1962 - November 13, 1999
Crestlawn Cemetery / Atlanta / Georgia / USA / North America
R. J. Vealey was a respected studio drummer and former member of Roy Orbison's backing band who joined the Atlanta Rhythm Section in 1995. After the Atlanta Rhythm Section had finished an afternoon set at a concert festival in Orl...
Veil, Simone
Historical Figure
Age 89
July 13, 1927 - June 30, 2017
Le Panthéon / Paris / France / Europe
Simone Veil was a Holocaust survivor, magistrate, minister, and the first woman President of the European Parliament. She was also the first woman to preside over the directly elected European Parliament.
Ventriglia, Franco
Music
Age 90
October 20, 1922 - November 28, 2012
Oak Lawn Cemetery / Fairfield / Connecticut / USA / North America
Franco Ventriglia was an opera singer who sang bass in every major European opera house during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Serving in the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in the South Pacific during World War II upon return stateside Fra...
Ventura, Lino
Show Business
Age 68
July 14, 1919 - October 22, 1987
Cimetière du Val-Saint-Germain / Le Val-Saint-Germain / Departement de l'Essonne, Île-de-France / France / Europe
Lino Ventura was France's favorite Italian French actor. Lino was born in Italy but he spent much of his youth raised by his mother in Paris, France. After a first career as a professional wrestler was ended by injury, he was offe...
Vianney, Jean-Marie Baptiste
Historical Figure
Age 73
May 8, 1786 - August 4, 1859
Basilica of Ars / Ars-sur-Formans / France / Europe
The little town of Ars, France, about 20 miles north of Lyon, has become famous through the holy life and labors of St. John Vianney, its beloved Cure. The story of Jean Vianney emphasizes how God uses the simple and under-rated p...
Vincent, Gene
Music
Age 36
February 11, 1935 - October 12, 1971
Eternal Valley Memorial Park / Newhall / California / United States / North America
More threatening than Elvis, wilder than Jerry Lee Lewis and sexier than Buddy Holley, Gene Vincent was the real thing. A swaggering, unrepentant rock 'n' roll singer and guitarist, he represented a dangerous embodiment of the def...
Voltaire
Historical Figure
Age 83
November 21, 1694 - May 30, 1778
Le Panthéon / Paris / France / Europe
Voltaire was a French writer and philosopher who produced prolific works that challenged the 18th century's ideas about religion and civil rights. Voltaire is most famously known for his satirical novel Candide, which was very pop...
Von Bulow, Sunny
Crime and their Victims
Age 76
September 1, 1932 - December 6, 2008
Saint Mary's Episcopal Churchyard and Cemetery / Portsmouth / Rhode Island / USA / North America
Martha "Sunny" Von Bulow was an American heiress, socialite, and philanthropist. Upon her utilities magnate father's death, she was the heiress to his ~ $100 million fortune. After divorcing her first husband, Prince Alfred von Au...
von Neumann, John
Science
Age 53
December 28, 1903 - February 8, 1957
North America
John von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. Von Neumann was regarded as perhaps the mathematician with the widest coverage of the subject in his time and was said ...
Wadlow, Robert
The Odd and the Interesting
Age 22
February 22, 1918 - July 15, 1940
Upper Alton Cemetery / Alton / Illinois / USA / North America
Robert Pershing Wadlow, also known as Alton's Gentle Giant and the Giant of Illinois, was an American man who was the tallest person in recorded history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. He was born and raised in Alton, Illi...
Walker, Madam C. J.
Business and Finance
Age 51
December 23, 1867 - May 25, 1919
Woodlawn Cemetery / Bronx / New York / USA / North America
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 Ame...
Walker, T-Bone
Music
Age 64
May 28, 1910 - March 16, 1975
Inglewood Memorial Park / Inglewood / California / USA / North America
Infusing the blues with an electrifying, yet, sophisticated uptown flavor, T-Bone Walker was the driving force that redirected the course of the blues - moving it from juke joints and roadhouses to swank nightclubs and theaters. F...
Wallis, Ruth
Music
Age 87
January 5, 1920 - December 22, 2007
Sharon Memorial Park / Sharon / Massachusetts / USA / North America
Ruth Wallis performed risqué cabaret numbers for listeners worldwide during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. She was known as the Queen of the Party Song, and began her career performing jazz and cabaret songs. Ruth was a veteran of ten ...
Warfield, David
Show Business
Age 84
November 28, 1866 - June 27, 1951
Ferncliff Cemetery / Hartsdale / New York / USA / North America
David Warfield was an American stage actor and at the time was one of the world's richest entertainers. Warfield's was considered as a leading American actor in comedy largely due to his distinct style in which he portrayed a kind...
Warhol, Andy
Artists
Age 58
August 6, 1928 - February 22, 1987
St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery / Bethel Park / Pennsylvania / USA / North America
Andy Warhol was an American artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as the Pop Art movement. Like his contemporaries Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein, Warhol wryly resp...