Legends Rest in Peace

Tucked away behind an office building, a movie theatre and a library on the west side of Los Angeles, half a block from Wilshire Blvd. is a peaceful, tree shaded, postage stamp sized graveyard. The graveyard may be small but it’s inhabitants were and still are huge in our memories. Interred in marble crypts and under grassy lawn, here lie:


Fanny Brice (1891-1951)

Truman Capote (1924-1984)

James Coburn (1928-2002) & Paula Coburn (1955-2004)
Go Bravely On Love is the Answer

Bob Crane (1928-1978) & Sigrid Valdis (1935-2007)
Col. Hogan & Hilda together forever.

Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004)
There goes the neighborhood.

Merv Griffin (1925-2007)
I will not be right back after this message.

Don Knotts (1924-2006)

Jack Lemmon (1925-2001)

In

Dean Martin (1917-1995)
Everybody loves somebody sometime.

Walter Matthau (1920-2000)

Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962)

Carol O’Connor (1924-2001)

Roy Orbison (1936-1988)

Bette Mae Page (1923-2008)

Queen of Pin-Ups

Mel Torme (1925-1999)
Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have below.

Billy Wilder (1906-2002)
I’m a writer but then nobody’s perfect.

Frank Zappa (1940-1993)

And many more. Marilyn’s marble crypt is never without a bouquet of flowers. Dean Martin rests in the Sanctuary of Love. Frank Zappa and Roy Orbison chose to rest in unmarked graves rather than suffer the fate of Morrison. Their only monument: anonymous donors occasionally leaving a guitar pick to mark their resting place. There are many cemeteries in Los Angeles, but none more classic, peacefully dignified, evocatively memorable. Whether intentional or not these legends changed their world.