Billie Holiday

AKA:

Lady Day

Birth Name:

Eleanora Fagan

Birth Date:

April 7, 1915

Birth Place:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Death Date:

July 17, 1959

Place of Death:

Metropolitan Hospital, New York, New York

Age:

Cause of Death:

Pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis of the liver

Cemetery Name:

St. Raymond's Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Music

Billie Holiday is considered one of the greatest jazz vocalists of all time. Her singing expressed an incredible depth of emotion that spoke of hard times and injustice as well as triumph. Though her career was relatively short and often erratic, she left behind a body of work as great as any vocalist before or since. When Holiday died, The New York Times published a short obituary on page 15 without a byline. She left an estate of $1,000, and her best recordings from the 1930s were mostly out of print. Holiday's public stature grew in the following years. In 1961, she was voted to the Down Beat Hall Of Fame, and soon after Columbia reissued nearly one hundred of her early records. In 1972, Diana Ross' portrayal of Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe. Holiday was posthumously nominated for 23 Grammy awards.

Fun Fact

When Billie Holiday died in her hospital bed, her entire estate at the time was worth only $1,000 with $700 found strapped to her leg.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

St. Raymond's Cemetery

2600 Lafayette Avenue

Bronx, New York, 10465

USA

North America

Map:

Map of St. Raymond's New Cemetery

Grave Location:

St. Paul Range 56, Plot 29, Grave 1

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery off Lafayette Avenue, the first section on the right is St. Paul. Billie Holiday can be found in row 56 (every 15th row is marked) and 29 spaces from the road. Her upright monument she shares with her mother is just about in the exact middle of the section.