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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J. P. Morgan

popular name: J. P. Morgan

date_of_death: March 31, 1913 (aged 75)

age: 75

cause_of_death: Acute attack of gastro enteritis

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: J.P. Morgan was a titan of American business. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries his position and connections put him squarely in the middle of the development of American industry. Of his generation John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was the most powerful banker, industrialist and art collector in America. Born in Connecticut, he was the third generation of a banking dynasty that he would go on to dwarf with his financial acumen and bullish instinct. His father Junius Spencer Morgan was a partner in a London-based merchant bank. Another ancestor, James Pierpont, founded Yale University. At the height of his powers in the 1890s, Morgan was said to control one sixth of America’s railway lines. In 1895 he and a consortium of bankers rescued America’s Gold Standard loaning the federal government more than $60 million. In addition to the bank that bore his name, Morgan invested in and subsequently bought the Carnegie Steel Company, Edison General Electric and the United States Steel Corporation. He also acquired the New York Times newspaper and founded the Metropolitan Club in New York when the Union Club blackballed his friend John King. Deeply offended, he instructed the architects ‘build me a club fit for gentlemen. Forget the expense’. However, Morgan was not content just in the banking world – he had many interests elsewhere. Adolph Ochs, publisher of the Chattanooga Times, secured a loan with J.P. Morgan’s help and managed to save the New York Times. His personal and business interests extended to steel and railroads. He purchased U.S. Steel from Andrew Carnegie and merged it with a few other firms to create United States Steel in 1901. Over 100 years later that firm is still going strong.