Cemetery Case

A girl and her father go on a bike ride, but it isn’t to the park, it is a ride to the cemetery. It might seem like a weird place to spend their afternoon, but for them it has always been one of their favorite places to go. They enjoy looking for family members from generations long ago, because her father makes it a game. They spend hours talking about the history of their family and try to find the oldest grave in the place.

Not everyone would think of spending their afternoon searching the local cemetery, but for a grave hunter, it is the ideal afternoon. The excitement of finding who you are looking for and the history behind the life and death of the individual all add to the experience. Everyone has a hobby, but some not as morbid or interesting as grave hunting.  

For me, I was that little girl. Grave hunting has always been something my father and I did on a Sunday afternoon. As an adult, I was interested in finding celebrity homes. I wanted to see old Hollywood homes, iconic ones, but most of the old ones were demolished by the new owners or the walls were so high that it was nearly impossible to see anything. Disappointed, I revisited the idea of searching for graves, but this time, celebrity graves. For most grave hunting is stumbled upon. Most begin to wonder where their favorite icon’s final resting place might be, so you being to search and the hobby takes flight. Everyone thought that the idea was very morbid, but the more I researched, the more realized that I wasn’t the only weirdo that enjoyed doing this.

There are websites are full of information and detailed directions to locate a grave. Jim Tipton is the founder of the most used websites to locate any grave, Find A Grave.com. He created the site in 1995, because he couldn’t find a website that gave specific information on locating a grave. His site now has information for millions of graves and is updated regularly.

Another great website that I find very useful in my grave hunting is where the stars are buried.com. It gives the option of searching by celebrities’ last name or the cemetery name. It also gives a brief history on the celebrities’ life and death.  The information is updated frequently and always has the newest death on file. Another helpful tool is it gives specific directions to each grave. For example, when you find Clark Gable’s grave, go two markers to the left and you’ll find Nat King Cole’s grave. This makes the experience very easy and enjoyable, because you can visit multiple people in one afternoon.

In Los Angeles, there are several cemeteries that celebrities have tend to favor as their final resting places. One of the biggest is Forest Lawn of Hollywood. The cemetery is about 300 acres which can make finding most of the graves very difficult. As I follow the map that I’ve prepared, I enter the outdoor mausoleum. At the opening of the mausoleum, the graves of Liberace and Bette Davis welcome me. As I continue I find a marker on the mausoleum wall of Freddie Prinze and finally reach the Bee Gee I was looking for, Andy Gibb.

Pierce Brothers of Westwood is another cemetery of the stars. This cemetery is one of the smallest to grave hunt, but it won’t disappoint. It might only be about 2 acres, very hard to find, nestled between two skyscrapers, but in this hidden treasure you’ll find A list celebrities at every corner of the facility. As I exit my car, I am met by the grave of Farrah Fawcett and next to her is Merv Griffin. This place is always overwhelming for me because of the tiny size, every grave is someone famous. The marker of Marilyn Monroe can be seen from where I stand because it is polished by the oils of all the hands that have touched it. The staff at Pierce Brothers will gladly point you in the direction of a grave, were at Forest Lawn it is prohibited to give out information to anyone that is not a family member of the deceased.

Another great place to visit is the Hollywood Forever cemetery. The caretakers have maps for sale of the famous graves and encourage grave hunting. It has a feel of old Hollywood with fountains and elaborate gothic family crypts. There are a variety of older celebrities buried here and it takes a bit of research into their backgrounds and contributions to Hollywood to understand who they were. The first time I visited this place I didn’t get off, I drove around very slowly. From my car I was instantly greeted by Mel Blanc’s grave and laughed as I read under his name, “That’s all folks!” As I continued, I started to realize that it was going to take more that an afternoon to explore this place because there were an extraordinary amount of graves to see.