Richardson, J. P.
Music
Age 28
October 24, 1930 - February 3, 1959
Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Funeral Home / Beaumont / Texas / USA / North America
J.P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper) was a Texas disk jockey, musician and singer known for his big hit singles "Chantilly Lace" and "White Lightning". Richardson was killed in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa in 1959 along with ...
Jolson, Al
Show Business
Age 64
June 9, 1886 - October 23, 1950
Hillside Memorial Park / Culver City / California / USA / North America
Jolson rose through the ranks of vaudeville as a comedian and a blackface “Mammy” singer. By 1920, he had become the biggest star on Broadway, but he is probably best remembered for his film career. He starred in "The Jazz Sin...
DeMille, Cecil B.
Show Business
Age 77
August 12, 1881 - January 21, 1959
Hollywood Forever Cemetery / Los Angeles / California / USA / North America
Considered the founding father of the American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history he was also one of the founders of Paramount Pictures. As a director, producer, writer and actor. Cecil B...
Carrier, Willis
Business and Finance
Age 83
November 26, 1876 - October 7, 1950
Forest Lawn Cemetery / Buffalo / New York / USA / North America
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 conditioni...
Royal, Billy Joe
Music
Age 73
April 3, 1942 - October 6, 2015
Greenwood Cemetery / Morehead City / North Carolina / USA / North America
Billy Joe Royal was a Georgia-born singer who debuted on Columbia Records with "Down in the Boondocks" in 1965, which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. But he struggled to match his initial success with his subsequent record...
Valens, Ritchie
Music
Age 17
May 13, 1941 - February 3, 1959
San Fernando Mission Catholic Cemetery / Mission Hills / California / USA / North America
Ritchie Valens was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist and a true rock and roll pioneer who died at the young age of 17 in the infamous Buddy Holly plane crash. Ritchie played is final concert at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, ...
Toland, Gregg
Show Business
Age 44
May 29, 1904 - September 28, 1948
Hollywood Forever Cemetery / Los Angeles / California / USA / North America
Gregg Wesley Toland was an American cinematographer known for his innovative use of techniques such as deep focus, examples of which can be found in his work on Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941), William Wyler's The Best Years of ...
Von Bulow, Sunny
Crime and their Victims
Age 76
September 1, 1932 - December 6, 2008
Saint Mary's Episcopal Churchyard and Cemetery / Portsmouth / Rhode Island / USA / North America
Martha "Sunny" Von Bulow was an American heiress, socialite, and philanthropist. Upon her utilities magnate father's death, she was the heiress to his ~ $100 million fortune. After divorcing her first husband, Prince Alfred von Au...
Genna, Peter
Crime and their Victims
Age 67
January 1, 1880 - May 13, 1948
Mt. Carmel Catholic Cemetery / Hillside / Illinois / USA / North America
Peter and Sam Genna arrived to Chicago in April of 1906, having been sponsored by a brother in law and both being described as farmhand/laborers. Their four brothers would later follow them to America where they would form a power...
Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy
Historical Figure
Age 64
July 28, 1928 - May 19, 1994
Arlington National Cemetery / Arlington / Virginia / USA / North America
Former First Lady of the United States of America and style icon. She devoted much of her time to making the White House a historical museum of American History while First Lady. Following the assassination of her husband John F. ...
Taylor, Annie Edson
The Odd and the Interesting
Age 82
October 24, 1838 - April 29, 1921
Oakwood Cemetery / Niagara Falls / New York / USA / North America
Annie Edson Taylor was an American schoolteacher who, on her 63rd birthday, October 24, 1901, became the first, and oldest, person to go over Niagara Falls intentionally and survive. The trip itself took less than twenty minutes, ...
Cermak, Anton
Historical Figure
Age 59
May 9, 1873 - March 6, 1933
Bohemian National Cemetery / Chicago / Illinois / USA / North America
Anton Cermak was the 44th mayor of Chicago who was shot while shaking hands with President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami, Florida after a day of fishing on February 15, 1933. Cermak was shot in the lung and wounded during G...
St. John, John Patrick
Crime and their Victims
Age 77
February 18, 1918 - May 3, 1995
Rose Hills Memorial Park / Whittier / California / USA / North America
John Patrick St. John, better known as "Jigsaw John", was a Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective, renowned for his investigations of many of Los Angeles's highest-profile murder cases. St. John served 43 years as a hom...
Rickenbacker, Adolph
Music
Age 88
April 1, 1887 - March 21, 1976
Loma Linda Memorial Park / Fullerton / California / USA / North America
Adolph Rickenbacker was a Swiss-American remembered as one of the co-founders of the Rickenbacker guitar, and one of the key people who was responsible for the creation and adoption of electric guitars that managed to change the s...
Dillinger, John
Crime and their Victims
Age 31
June 22, 1903 - July 22, 1934
Crown Hill Cemetery / Indianapolis / Indiana / USA / North America
John Dillinger was an infamous American gangster of the Great Depression. He led a group known as the "Dillinger Gang", which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times but esc...