2024 Year in Review!

 

2024 will soon come to a close.  As has become tradition here, it's time to look back on all the fresh dirt that this blogger explored over the last year.  I wasn't sure of the exact numbers myself, but suffice it to say, I was very surprised.

In 2024, this blogger visited 72 graves in 12 states and Washington, DC.  This brings the total to date to 639 famous graves in 32 states and DC.  Next year, we go for 700.

Many of this year's notable graves have already been chronicled here, including Cokie Roberts, Pearl S. Buck, and Philip McKeon.  We've also highlighted some of the more unusual graves we discovered this year, including Stephanie Zimbalist, who is still very much alive, and Ed Headrick, who now exists as a frisbee.

Before we end the year, here's a quick look at some of the other graves we found, who may be blogged in the near future.

Allen Ludden
Game Show Host/Betty White's Husband
Graceland Cemetery
Mineral Point, Wisconsin
Trivia: The location of Betty's ashes remains a mystery.  Urban legend has it that they were secretly buried or scattered here.

Bob Evans
Restauranteur
Mound Hill Cemetery
Gallipolis, Ohio
Trivia: The headstone is shaped like one of his restaurants.

Chris Farley
Actor/Alleged Comedian
Resurrection Cemetery
Madison, Wisconsin
Trivia: Farley died of a drug overdose while entertaining a hooker.  She took photos of his dead body and sold them to the National Enquirer.

Frank Lloyd Wright
Architect
Unity Chapel Cemetery
Wyoming, Wisconsin

Trivia: Like Judy Garland and Anton Yelchin, Wright has two graves.  In 1985, his remains were exhumed from this location and cremated.  Some were re-interred here, while others were buried with his wife in Arizona.  Additionally, this location is but a few miles from one of America's greatest roadside attractions, House on the Rock, which was created by rival architect Alex Jordan, Jr.  Allegedly, Wright told Jordan that he would never amount to anything.  In response, Jordan created the attraction to prove him wrong.  Today, it attracts more than 500,000 visitors every year.

Mark Gruenwald
Comic Book Artist
Ripley's Believe it or Not!
Williamsburg, Virginia
Trivia: Gruenwald was a comic book artist who lived for his work.  Upon his death, his body was cremated, and his ashes were used in the production of the comic book seen below.  

Not pictured: Aaron Burr, Jr., Alan Freed, Anna Anderson, Anne Baxter, Audrey Roth, Barbara Baxley, Bernard Henry Kroger, Charles Atlas, Charles Coburn, Charles Colson, Charles Durbing, Charles Hinton, Jr., Cokie Roberts, David Frisch, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, Ed Headrick, Efrem Zimbalist, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Eileen Brennan, Eugene Stoner, Frederick Branch, Geraldine Ferraro, Henry John Heinz, Henry John Heinz II, Henry John Heinz III, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, James Gamble, Joe Lieberman, Joe Pepitone, John Cephas, JFK, John Gotti, John Philip Sousa, Johnny Appleseed, Joseph Cotten, Kunta Kinte, Leo the MGM Lion, Leon Uris, the John List Family, Louis Lowery, Lucky Luciano, Marilyn Marie Johnson Eastman, Mario Cuomo, Martha Moxley, Martin Balsam, Mary "Kitty" Menendez, Mary Travers, Nancy Kulp, Nancy Parsons, Patricia Cotton, Pearl S. Buck, Peter Kurten, Philip McKeon, Prescott Bush, Robert Williams Daniel, Robert Novak, Scott Hall, Stephanie Zimbalist, Tom Thumb, Victor Borge, Walter Matt Jefferies, William Higgins, and William Procter.

Happy holidays!  This blog will return in January 2025.