Karen Ann Quinlan and the Right to Die

 

Note: This blog does not take positions on social or political issues.  We just tell you where to find dead people.

Karen Ann Quinlan was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on March 29, 1954.  She came to national attention in 1975 as the subject of one of America's first right-to-die cases.  

It all began on April 15th, just a few weeks after her 21st birthday. Karen went to a party at a local bar in Byram, New Jersey.  She had several gin and tonics with a valium chaser.  The combination put her into a coma from which she'd never recover.

As her body began to shut down, Karen suffered irreversible brain damage, putting her in a persistent vegetative state.  Over the next several months, she lost alot weight as well, dropping from 115 to merely 80 pounds.  No longer able to breathe on her own, she was hooked up to a ventilator.

On September 12th, Quinlan's parents, Joseph and Julia, filed a suit requesting that the ventilator and extraordinary means prolonging her life be terminated.  They argued it was their right and that the Garden State had no grounds to interfere.  The case was appealed all the way to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which eventually granted their request.

Karen's ventilator was removed in May 1976, and to everyone's surprise, she continued breathing on her own.  She was moved to a private nursing home, where she was fed by artificial nutrition.  She lived an extraordinary nine years in this condition, before finally succumbing on June 11, 1985.  She was just 31 years old.

Karen was laid to rest at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery and Mausoleum in East Hanover, New Jersey.  When Joseph passed away in 1996, he was also buried in the family plot.  As of 2026, Julia is still alive and approaching 100 years of age, but she will no doubt join her family here one day.

Location: Section #29, Block A, Grave 44 2A
Inscription: A Precious Gift

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about Karen Ann Quinlan, take a voyage to Amazon.  Its all in books.
  
  
• In 1977, NBC produced the made-for-TV movie In the Matter of Karen Ann Quinlan, which starred Brian Keith as Joseph and Piper Laurie as Julia.  You can watch the film in its entirety on YouTube.
  
  
• In 1980, Joseph and Julia opened the Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice, which now has four locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
  
  
• In 1976, the band Starz released a single called Pull the Plug in tribute to Karen.  Give it a listen on YouTube.
  
  
• Gate of Heaven is also the final resting place of famed mentalist The Amazing Kreskin, previously featured in this blog.

Buffalo Bob Smith

 

"We do constructive things.  We talk about safety and good manners and encourage the kids to go to their place of worship on Sunday.  And the show is an emotional outlet for children.  They like to see Clarabell chase me with a seltzer bottle because its something they'd like to do."

Buffalo Bob Smith was born Robet Emil Schmidt in Buffalo, New York on November 27, 1917. He graduated from Masten Park High School in 1935 before joining the local radio scene.  He got his start at WGR-AM before moving to WBEN-AM in 1943.

Schmidt was an overnight success, beating long-time ratings champ Don McNeill, who's Breakfast Club morning program had topped the local charts for several years. Schmidt's success caught the attention of NBC, who brought him to their flagship New York station (WNNNNNNBC) in 1945.  It was there that he first created The Howdy Doody Show and the character of Buffalo Bob.

In 1947, Smith took the series to television and had a series of Howdy Doody marionettes created (see Trivia below).  Before each program, he would record Howdy's dialogue, then interact with the puppet throughout the show.  He rounded out the cast with a clown named Clarabell, who took an early vow of silence, only speaking once during this emotional farewell in the final episode.  Smith also included a live studio audience, nicknamed the Peanut Gallery.  The series ran for 13 years before ultimately being canceled in 1960.

When it was over, Smith toured college campuses, bringing an eclectic mix of contemporary humor and nostalgia.  He would make occasional television appearances on such shows as Happy Days and What's My Line.  He even turned up in the 1991 film Problem Child 2.

Smith eventually retired to Flat Rock, North Carolina.  It was there that he died of lung cancer on July 30, 1998.  He was 80 years old.  Headline News filed this report.  He was laid to rest at Pinecrest Presbyterian Church Memorial Garden. His marker even bares his trademark name.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about Buffalo Bob Smith, take a voyage to Amazon.  Its all in books.
  
  
• The original Howdy Doody marionette was created by puppet expert Frank Paris in 1947.  It would only last for one season however, as Paris and Smith could not agree on merchandising rights.  After a brief absence from the show, a new puppet premiered in 1948, with Bob announcing that Howdy Doody had undergone plastic surgery.  I'm not making that up.
  
  
• Buffalo Bob participated in the A&E documentary series Biography in 1995.  You can catch that Howdy Doody-themed episode in its entirety on YouTube.
  
  
• Buffalo Bob later appeared in a live infomercial on QVC promoting Howdy Doody memorabilia, just four weeks before his death.  It would ultimately be his final public appearance.  It's also available on YouTube.
  
  
• Buffalo Bob was no stranger to late-night TV back when it was good, making regular appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman.
  
  
• Buffalo Bob passed away three days before fellow puppeteer Shari Lewis, who's own show had, ironically, taken over his old timeslot.

The Future Grave of an American President

 

Lancaster, Ohio is home to a 200-year-old historical curiosity - Stonewall Cemetery Park, the future final resting place of any American President who wants to claim it.

The story began in 1817, when local resident Nathaniel Wilson III set aside a strip of land on his estate to be used as a family burial ground. In October of that year, he deeded the site to President James Monroe and his successors forever in trust.  Wilson passed away in 1839, but his son completed the project, surrounding it with 7-foot-high sandstone walls. 

An inscription reads:

"This wall, which encloses the family burying ground of Nathaniel Wilson (one of the early Pioneers of the West, who emigrated from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and settled near this place AD 1798, when all around was one continued and uninhabited wilderness) was commenced by him AD 1838 and finished in the following year by his son Gustin, the former having suddenly died May 12, 1839."

Monroe never took ownership of the property, but for several generations, Fairfield County officials made a point to notify subsequent administrations of the cemetery's availability.  They later claimed the property in 1960 and turned conservatorship over to Fairfield County Parks.  Today, it's something of a unique tourist attraction.

Book your tour today!

Happy Presidents Day!

Trivia

• For more information about this unique Ohio tourist attraction, please visit Roadside America.
  
  
• President Monroe visited the nearby state capital of Columbus in August 1817 as part of a 15-week tour aimed at building national unity.  Could this have been the inspiration for Wilson's gift?  
  
  
• Planning a trip to Lancaster?  Consider taking a tour of the abandoned and supposedly haunted Fairfield County Infirmary, which features remnants of the anthology series American Horror Story: Freak Show.  Check it out on Roadside America.

The Multiple Graves of F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

"What people are ashamed of usually makes a great story."

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896.  Prior to his birth, Fitzgerald's father moved the family from Maryland, intent on opening a wicker furniture manufacturing business.

He was a writer from an early age.  His first novel, This Side of Paradise, was published in 1920, when he was just 24 years old. One week after its publication, he married Zelda Sayre, a fellow novelist and socialite.

Fitzgerald's most famous work, The Great Gatsby, was published in 1925.  It's a tale of the jazz age, a term he coined himself, that is often hailed by literary critics as the great American novel.  He'd eventually write four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories.

On December 21, 1940, Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in Hollywood.  He was just 44 years old.  His will called for "the cheapest funeral" possible, something that Zelda, who was living in a sanatorium at the time, decided to honor.  She had the body shipped east for burial in the family plot in Rockville, Maryland's Catholic Cemetery.  Fitzgerald's reputation would follow him to the grave however, as the church deemed him "unfit to be buried alongside good Catholics in consecrated ground."  Zelda subsequently arranged for him to be buried in Rockville Cemetery.  Eight years later, she died in a hospital fire in North Carolina and was laid to rest atop her husband in the single plot.

Usually, this would be the end of the story.  However, by 1975, the Fitzgeralds' grave was in great disrepair.  A local fraternal organization petitioned the Archbishop of Washington to reconsider Fitzgerald's 1940 request for internment in the family plot at Catholic Cemetery, since renamed St. Mary's Church Cemetery.  The request was approved, and the Fitzgeralds' final resting place moved one mile down the road.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about F. Scott Fitzgerald, take a voyage to Amazon.  Its all in books.
  
  
• Fitzgerald was named after his distant relative Francis Scott Key.  His second cousin, Mary Suratt, was hanged in 1865 for her role in the assassination of President Lincoln.
  
  
• At the time of his death, Fitzgerald was writing his novel The Last Tycoon, which was published unfinished.  Its also available from Amazon.
  
  
• In addition to The Great Gatsby, a number of Fitzgerald's other stories have also been adapted for the silver screen, including The Beautiful and the Damned (2009) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).
  
  
• Among the many posthumous tributes to the author are his induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame (2008), appearing on a 23-cent U.S. postage stamp (1996), and the creation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society at Hofstra University in New York (1990).