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:
51
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:

[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]
[+]

Read More About Madam C. J. Walker:

Videos Featuring Madam C. J. Walker:

See More:

Edward P. Williams

popular name: Edward P. Williams

date_of_death: May 4, 1903

age: 59

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Edward Williams was the vice-president and co-founder (with Osborn and Sherwin) of the Sherwin-Williams Company - one of the largest paint and coating manufacturing companies in the world. In February 1870 the three gentleman each invested $15,000 for equal shares in what became "Sherwin Williams & Co". The company prospered and in its first year reported sales of $422,390. In 2020 the company reported revenues in excess of $18 billion and operates in over 120 countries around the world.

John D. Rockefeller Sr.

popular name: John D. Rockefeller Sr.

date_of_death: May 23, 1937

age: 97

cause_of_death: Arteriosclerosis

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: There’s rich, there’s wealthy, and then there’s John D. Rockefeller. Considered by many to be the most financially-prosperous individual in modern history with an estimated $900,000,000 bank balance (unadjusted for inflation) in the early 1910s, Rockefeller made his massive fortune by dominating the oil industry. While Rockefeller was prone to controversy—he was accused of being a monopoly in the fuel business—he was also a generous philanthropist, donating over a half-billion dollars in his lifetime (and that's also unadjusted for inflation).

Willis Carrier

popular name: Willis Carrier

date_of_death: October 7, 1950

age: 83

cause_of_death: Heart disease

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: As the father of modern refrigeration and air conditioning, Willis Carrier was the founder and chief executive officer of the giant Carrier Corporation and received more than 80 patents over 50 years in the field of air conditioning.

Back to Top