Among the more than 190,000 people buried in Crown Hill Cemetery are:
-Erwin G. "Cannonball" Baker (1882-1960), record-setting motorcyclist and race car driver who went on to become NASCAR'S first commissioner.
-James Baskett (1904-1948), first black actor to receive an award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Baskett received the honorary award in 1947 for his role as Uncle Remus in Disney's "Song of the South."
-Jefferson C. Davis (1828-1879), Civil War general who allegedly killed his own commanding officer but was never formally disciplined.
-John Dillinger (1903-1934), Depression-era bank robber.
-Charles Fairbanks, (1852-1918), U.S. senator from 1897-1904; U.S. vice president from 1905-1909. Fairbanks, Alaska, is named after him.
-Carl Fisher (1874-1934), entrepreneur who helped develop the Lincoln Highway and the Dixie Highway, which connected the Midwest to Miami Beach, where Fisher became a prominent land developer. Fisher also was a founder of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
-Richard J. Gatling (1818-1903), inventor of the Gatling Gun.
-Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901), U.S. senator from 1880-1887, 23rd president of the United States from 1889-1893.
-Caroline Harrison (1832-1892), first president general of the Daughters of the American Revolution; wife of Benjamin Harrison.
-George Washington Julian (1817-1899), U.S. congressman, 1849-1851 and 1861-1871; appointed by President Grover Cleveland as surveyor general of New Mexico, serving from July 1885 until September 1889.
-Etheridge Knight (1931-1991), prominent poet of the 1970s and 1980s.
-James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), Indiana poet known for children's poems like "Little Orphant Annie."
-Otto Stark (1858-1926), early Impressionist painter who was part of the "Hoosier Group."
-Booth Tarkington (1869-1946), Pulitzer prize-winning author and playwright.
so of course i knew about benjamin harrison, james whitcomb riley, dillinger, etc... but i didn't know uncle remus was buried there! hell yeah... first black actor to win an oscar: too bad it was for song of the south, a movie that might never be re-released in the US because of the over-the-top racial stereotypes. (though bootleg dvds are around, and there are rumors that disney will release it on dvd next year for the 60th anniversary).
anyway, crown hill is just a few blocks from my house. when teaching us to drive, my parents used to take us there for practice: it was nice because we could slowly drive around all those winding roads with little chance of killing anyone, since most of the people around were already dead.
it's kind of weird seeing stories about a local landmark in papers like the sacramento bee, but i guess they need something to fill up all that empty space on the back of those advertisements.¶
2 comments:
maybe that's where you can teach me to drive.
if we ever get around to it, i probably will.
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