Thomas, Dave
Business and Finance
Age 69
July 2, 1932 - January 8, 2002
Union Cemetery / Columbus / Ohio / USA / North America
Dave Thomas was a successful businessman, philanthropist, fast-food tycoon and the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's, a fast-food restaurant chain. In 1979 sales exceeded $1 billion dollars and at the time of his deat...
Lemmon, Jack
Show Business
Age 76
February 8, 1925 - June 27, 2001
Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park / Los Angeles / California / USA / North America
Born the only child of a wealthy Boston family (his father was president of a baking company) Jack Lemmon was an American actor and musician who, after naval service and graduation from Harvard, headed for New York and fame - with...
Gall, France
Music
Age 70
October 9, 1947 - January 7, 2018
Cimetière de Montmartre / Paris / France / Europe
France Gall was a French yé-yé singer who first rose to fame in 1965 when, at the age of 17, she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg. What little did she know at the time was the song that she won the Eurovision Song ...
Young, Lester
Music
Age 49
August 27, 1909 - March 15, 1959
The Evergreens Cemetery / Brooklyn / New York / USA / North America
Lester Young, nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is considered by many to be the greatest, most influential tenor sax player in the jazz idiom. Lester rose to prominence with the Count Basie Orc...
Daffan, Ted
Music
Age 84
September 21, 1912 - October 6, 1996
Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery / Houston / Texas / USA / North America
Ted Daffan was a country music performer (with his band the Texans) and songwriter noted for composing the seminal "Truck Driver's Blues" and two much covered country anthems of unrequited love, "Born to Lose" and "I'm a Fool to C...
Bradham, Caleb
Business and Finance
Age
May 27, 1867 - February 19, 1934
Cedar Grove Cemetery / New Bern / North Carolina / USA / North America
Caleb Bradham was an American pharmacist who is best known as the inventor of soft drink Pepsi. Around 1890, he dropped out of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, owing to his father's business going bankrupt. After ret...
Jones, Spike
Music
Age 53
December 14, 1911 - May 1, 1965
Holy Cross Cemetery / Culver City / California / USA / North America
Considered by many as the Father of Novelty Music, Spike Jones was the “Weird Al” Yankovic of the 1940s through the early 60s. A talented and serious musician and bandleader, Spike Jones and His City Slickers specialized in sp...
Clark, William Andrews Jr.
Business and Finance
Age 57
March 29, 1877 - June 14, 1934
Hollywood Forever Cemetery / Los Angeles / California / USA / North America
William Andrews Clark Jr. was a philanthropist, lawyer, book collector, founder of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the youngest surviving son of copper baron and U.S. Senator William Andrews Clark Sr. and his first wife, Kath...
Carvel, Tom
Business and Finance
Age 84
July 14, 1906 - October 21, 1990
Ferncliff Cemetery / Hartsdale / New York / USA / North America
Tom Carvel was the creator of soft serve ice cream and one of the founding fathers of the franchise system in America. When his ice cream truck suffered a flat tire in New York in 1934, he sold his melting ice cream from a parkin...
Lancaster, Burt
Show Business
Age 80
November 2, 1913 - October 20, 1994
Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park / Los Angeles / California / USA / North America
Burt Lancaster was a failed circus performer when in 1945 (according to the sort of Hollywood legend of which one should probably believe only half) he chanced to share an elevator ride with a theatrical producer who assumed that ...
Coward, Noël
Show Business
Age 73
December 16, 1899 - March 26, 1973
Firefly Estate, Galina, Jamaica / Galina, St. Mary / Jamaica / North America
A prolific performer, playwright and raconteur, Noël Coward was also a talented songwriter whose acerbic wit (both on and off stage) and sophisticated British persona were recognized worldwide. Coward first appeared onstage at th...
Ness, Eliot
Crime and their Victims
Age 54
April 19, 1903 - May 16, 1957
Lake View Cemetery / Cleveland / Ohio / USA / North America
Influenced by the career of his brother-in-law, Eliot Ness began his own law enforcement career in 1927, with the United States Treasury Department. In 1929, he transferred to the Justice Department and was assigned to the Prohibi...
Alves, Louis
Disasters
Age 33
October 1, 1969 - February 20, 2003
Mount Saint Mary's Cemetery / Pawtucket / Rhode Island / USA / North America
On February 20, 2003 music fan Louis Alves attended a concert at the Station Nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island. After opening bands Trip and Fathead finished their sets, the glam band Great White took the stage just after 11...
O'Banion, Dean
Crime and their Victims
Age 32
July 8, 1892 - November 10, 1924
Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery / Hillside / Illinois / USA / North America
As the leader of the North Side Gang in the early 1920s, Dean O'Banion was a feared Chicago mobster who was the main rival of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone during the bloody and violent Chicago bootlegging wars of the 1920s. He was ...
Arlen, Harold
Music
Age 81
February 15, 1905 - April 23, 1986
Ferncliff Cemetery / Hartsdale / New York / USA / North America
Harold Arlen was an American composer writing over 500 songs, several known worldwide. Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. Some of his best known work includes "Over the Rainbow", "Stormy Weather...