Charles Blondin

popular name: Élisabeth de Demidoff

date_of_death: March 27, 1818

age: 41

cause_of_death: Unkown

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Baroness Elizaveta Alexandrovna Stroganova was a Russian aristocrat of the Stroganov family. By birth she belonged to the highest nobility of the capital. Elizabeth's father was the owner of the Taman and Kynovsky factories and more than half a million acres of land. Her mother Elizaveta Alexandrovna Zagryazhskaya was a lady in waiting and a famous beauty of Catherine II's court. At age 17 she married Count Nikolai Nikitich Demidov and they had two children - Pavel (Paul) (1798–1840) and Anatoly (Anatole) (1812–1869). They were of completely different characters and often lived apart. She was beautiful, light and witty, and her husband more introspective, and so they soon grew bored with each other and they separated and she returned to live in Paris, where she died in 1818 and was buried in the Père Lachaise where she rests in the cemetery's largest mausoleum.

popular name: Huguette Clark

date_of_death: May 24, 2011

age: 104

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Huguette Clark was an American heiress, philanthropist, and recluse, born on June 9, 1906, in Paris, France. She was the daughter of U.S. Senator and copper magnate William A. Clark, one of the wealthiest men of the Gilded Age, and his much younger second wife, Anna La Chapelle. Raised in extraordinary wealth, Huguette inherited a vast fortune and numerous properties, including mansions in New York, California, and Connecticut. Despite her immense wealth, she lived a remarkably private life, withdrawing from public view for decades. In her later years, she chose to live in a hospital room in New York City, despite owning several luxurious homes. Fascination with her reclusive lifestyle grew after her death on May 24, 2011, at the age of 104. Her life story, marked by eccentricity, secrecy, and a bitter legal battle over her estate, captured public interest and was chronicled in the bestselling book Empty Mansions.

popular name: William Duggan

date_of_death: December 22, 1950

age: 51

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Even as a young boy, all William "Billy" Duggan ever wanted to do is join the circus. At age 12 he ran away from home to join the Sparks Circus where among his other duties, he was tasked with feeding the elephants. He quickly feel in love with these magnificent beasts and spent nearly 40 years working for one circus after another. In 1934, Mr. Duggan created the Duggan Brothers Circus, which toured for about a year. In 1950, he purchased the Pan American Animal Exhibit and began planning to make it into a three-ring circus that he named the Hagen-Wallace Circus. But of all the animals in his new circus, a young elephant by the name of Nancy was by far his favorite. Unfortunately Billy took ill and never saw the first performance of his new circus when he died suddenly. In his honor, Duggan’s son arranged for this life-size replica of Nancy, Duggan’s beloved baby elephant, to be carved from Tate, Georgia white marble and placed on his father’s grave. The cost of the sculpture was said to be nearly $10,000 (that's $131,000 in today's money). He was laid to rest at Grave of Pleasant Grove Primitive Cemetery in Moultrie, Georgia.