Houdini, Bess
Show Business
Age 67
January 23, 1876 - February 11, 1943
Gate of Heaven Cemetery / Hawthorne / New York / USA / North America
Wilhelmina Beatrice “Bess” Rahner was born to German immigrants in Brooklyn, New York, in 1876. Her life changed while performing at Coney Island with “The Floral Sisters” act, catching the eye of Theo Houdini. However, B...
Forester, C. S.
Writers and Poets
Age 66
August 27, 1899 - April 2, 1966
Loma Linda Memorial Park / Fullerton / California / USA / North America
C.S. Forester is best known for his Horatio Hornblower series, 12 novels set during the Napoleonic Wars that track the adventures and the growth of a young Englishman in the Royal Navy. By 1937, he was well on the way to success ...
Street, Richard
Music
Age 70
October 5, 1942 - February 27, 2013
Forest Lawn Memorial Park / Cypress / California / USA / North America
Richard Street was an American soul and R&B singer, most notable as a member of Motown vocal group The Temptations from 1971 to 1993. Street was the lead singer of an early Temptations predecessor, Otis Williams & the Distants, an...
Turner, Big Joe
Music
Age 74
May 18, 1911 - November 24, 1985
Roosevelt Memorial Park Cemetery / Gardena / California / USA / North America
Big Joe Turner, a 300-pound legend who learned to sing the blues as a Kansas City junkman and transformed decades of urban black music into the roots of rock ‘n’ roll. Turner sang rhythm and blues songs such as “Shake, Rattl...
Powell, Eugene
Music
Age 89
December 23, 1908 - November 4, 1998
Evergreen Cemetery / Metcalfe / Mississippi / USA / North America
Sonny Boy Nelson was an American Delta blues musician who picked up the guitar at the young age of 9. His best known works include “44 Blues”, “Suitcases Full of Troubles” and “Meet Me in the Bottoms”.
Stevens, Wallace
Writers and Poets
Age 75
October 2, 1879 - August 2, 1955
Cedar Hill Cemetery / Hartford / Connecticut / USA / North America
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an...
Lunceford, Jimmie
Music
Age 45
June 6, 1902 - July 12, 1947
Elmwood Cemetery / Memphis / Tennessee / USA / North America
Jimmie Lunceford was one of the most underrated American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleaders in the golden years of the Swing Era. Any list of the greatest bands of the swing era usually starts with those of Count Basie, Benny G...
González, Pancho
Sports
Age 67
May 9, 1928 - July 3, 1995
Palm Memorial Park / Las Vegas / Nevada / USA / North America
Often called "The Greatest Tennis Player to Never Win Wimbledon", Pancho González was one of the greatest tennis player in the history of the sport. During his life time he won 111 titles including 15 major singles titles (includ...
Ory, Kid
Music
Age 86
December 25, 1886 - January 23, 1973
Holy Cross Cemetery / Culver City / California / USA / North America
Edward "Kid" Ory was an American jazz composer, trombonist and bandleader. One of the early users of the glissando technique, he helped establish it as a central element of New Orleans jazz. As trombonist and bandleader, Kid Ory w...
Rockin' Dopsie
Music
Age 61
February 10, 1932 - August 26, 1993
Calvary Cemetery / Lafayette / Louisiana / USA / North America
Rockin’ Dopsie (pronounced DOOP-sie), along with Boozoo Chavis and Clifton Chenier, is widely acknowledged to be one of the originators of zydeco music. Dopsie played music for dancing, assimilating R&B influences into zydeco an...
Renard, Jules
Writers and Poets
Age 46
February 22, 1864 - May 22, 1910
Cimetière de Chitry-les-Mines / Chitry-les-Mines / France / Europe
Jules Renard (February 22, 1864- May 22, 1910) was a French author and member of the Académie Goncourt, most famous for the works Poil de Carotte (Carrot hair) (1894) and Les Histoires Naturelles (Natural Histories) (1896). Among...
Vale, Jerry
Music
Age 83
July 8, 1930 - May 18, 2014
Forest Lawn Cemetery / Cathedral City / California / USA / North America
A tenor with a smooth, polished delivery, Vale was a longtime fixture at Columbia Records who recorded more than 50 albums and hundreds of songs. He first hit the charts in 1953 with “You Can Never Give Me Back My Heart”. His ...
Rizzitello, Michael
Crime and their Victims
Age 78
March 29, 1927 - October 26, 2005
Forest Lawn Cemetery / Cathedral City / California / USA / North America
Michael Rizzitello (aka "Mike Rizzi") was a capo (underboss) in the Milano crime family of Los Angeles. Rizzitello's criminal record stretched back to 1947 whe he worked for "Crazy Joe" Gallo in the 1950s who was a member of the P...
Baker Buck
Sports
Age 83
March 4, 1919 - April 14, 2002
Magnolia Memorial Gardens / Charlotte / North Carolina / USA / North America
Buck Baker was an American stock car racer who began his NASCAR career in 1949 and won his first race three years later at Columbia Speedway. During his NASCAR Cup Series career, Baker won two championships, 46 races and 45 pole p...
Hagen, Earle
Music
Age 88
July 9, 1919 - May 26, 2008
Desert Memorial Park / Cathedral City / California / USA / North America
Earle Hagen was a talented Hollywood composer and musician who wrote some of the most famous theme songs in television history. Hagen's memorably melodic riffs in a variety of musical genres graced the score of dozens of televisio...