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Davis, Bette
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She
did it the hard way
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Indeed, she did. As a teenager, and with
the encouragement her mother, Davis hounded producers for bit parts in
plays, eventually landing two roles on Broadway. Seen by a
Universal Studies talent scout, she was invited to Hollywood for a
screen test. Although that test and a second were horrible, she
landed a role anyway when a cinematographer commented on her "lovely
eyes." For the next several years, Davis appeared in twenty
films, none very successful, and finally had her contract
terminated. Inexplicably, she was then offered the leading female
role in The Man Who Played God
for which she received her first positive reviews. That led to a
five-year contract with Warner Brothers and eventual success.
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For more information:
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| Davis,
Jefferson |
At Rest
An American Soldier
And Defender of the Constitution
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Jefferson
Davis was an American statesman who served as the President of the
Confederate States of America throughout the entire Civil War. He
was a graduate of West Point and served with distinction in the Black
Hawk and Mexican-American Wars. Following his service in Mexico,
President Polk offered Davis a commission as a general officer in
command of a militia. Davis refused, stating that the Constituion
reserved that right to state governments. He served as the
Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce, and later as a Senator from
Mississippi. A vocal opponent of succession, he never-the-less
resigned his seat when Mississippi succeeded. Four days later, he
was appointed as a Major General in the Mississippi militia and within
the month he had been offered the Presidency of the Confederacy by a
constitutional covention held in Montgomery, Alabama.
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For more
information:
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| Dempsey,
William Harrison "Jack" |
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A
Gentle Man
and a Gentleman
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One of the greatest boxing champions of
all time, Dempsey held the World Heavyweight Title between 1916 and
1925.
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For more information:
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| Doyle, Sir
Arthur Conan |
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Steel True,
Blade Straight
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Doyle was a prolific
Scottish author of science fiction, historical novels, poetry, drama,
and even non-fiction. He is, however, most remember for his
creation of Sherlock Holmes.
His epitaph comes from the poem "My Wife" by R. L. Stevenson:
Steel-true and
blade-straight The great artificer
Made my mate. |
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For more
information:
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| Dickinson, Emily |
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Although
today Dickinson is one of the best known American poets of the
nineteenth century, she lived an isolated and secluded life and was
practically unknown during her lifetime. Only a few of her 1800
poems were published while she lived, all anonymously.
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| Earp, Wyatt and Josephene
"Josie" Marcus |
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that
nothing's so sacred as honor and nothing's so loyal as love
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Following the gunfight at the OK Coral,
the revenge attacks, on the Earps, and Wyatt's famous vendetta ride
against the Cowboys, Wyatt renewed his romance with Josie Marcus, a
former fiance of his enemy Johnny Behan, and they lived together as man
and wife for the next forty-six years. |
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For more information:
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Fairbanks, Douglas Sr.
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Good Night Sweet Prince
and a flight of angels sing to rest
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Fairbanks's epitaph, Horatio
fairwell at Hamlet's death, is taken from Shakespeare. The same
quotation is also used at the grave of Tyrone Power and John Barrymore.
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For more information:
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Fitzgerald, Francis Scott Key
"F. Scott"
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So
we beat on, boats, against
the
current, borne back
ceaselessly
into the past.
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The last line in Fitzgerald's
classic novel; a perfect epitaph him, for the novel, and for
Gatsby. We will be who we are, and we are who we were. The
past is inescapable.
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For more information:
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| Franklin, Benjamin |
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The Body of
B.
Franklin, Printer
Like the Cover of an old Book
Its Contents
turn out
And Stript of
its Lettering & Guilding
Lies
here. Food for Worms
For, it will
as he believed
appear once
more
In a new and
more elegant Edition
corrected and
improved
By the Author
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When
Ben Franklin was only 22 years old, he penned this epitaph.
Sixty-four years later, he died peacefully in his sleep. His
funeral in Philadelphia attracted over 20,000, which was at the time
the largest gathering of mourners ever assembled in America. When
Franklin's will was read, he left instructions not to use the epitaph,
but to place a single line on his tombstone: "Benjamin and Deborah
Franklin: 1790."
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For
more information:
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| Frost, Robert Lee |
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I had A
Lover's Quarrel With The World |
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Like many poets, Robert Frost
wrote his own epitaph.
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For more information:
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| Gagnon, Rene A. |
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For God And
His Country
He Raised
Our Flag In Battle
And Showed
A Measure Of His
Pride At A
Place Called "Iwo Jima"
Where
Courage Never Died
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One of the Marine flag-raisers at
Iwo Jima, Gagnon attempted to capitalize on his celebrity status
following the war, garnering parts in two movies and making an
appearance at a Rose Bowl halftime show. His efforts, however,
resulted in little profit, and Gagnon became bitter. He worked at
a series of menial jobs--being fired from most--and kept a mostly
unfounded laundry list of personal injustices and unkept promises that
he believed thwarted his success in life.
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For more information:
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| Gleason, Herbert John "Jackie" |
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Jackie Gleason garnered his
first television role as the title character in the series "The Life of
Riley" in 1949, when other committments prevented William Bendix from
appearing in the show's first year. In 1950, he began to host the
"Cavalcade of Stars" for the small Dumont Television Network and
created the format--dance numbers, monologues, and comedic sketches,
like Ralph Kramden and The Honeymooners) that he would continue to use
in his variety shows until they left the air 1970. At the conclusion of
Gleason's begining monologue, his theme music would start and he would
shuffle off the stage as he shouted, "And Aw-a-a-y We Go!"
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For more information:
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| Hi Jolly (Hadji Ali) |
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Camel Driver - Packer - Scout
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In the mid-1850s, the idea of
establishing a military Camel Corps in the southwestern desert to
transport mail and support the construction of a Texas-California wagon
route was surfaced to
Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War, who after some deliberation
requested funds from Congress. The Army received $30,000 to
conduct an experiment and imported over 70 camels. Along
with the camels, the Army hired a handful of drivers, of whom Hi Jolly,
was by far the most competent, support the experiment and train
soldiers and government contractors to use the animals. Although
the experiment was successful, the rough American desert was quite hard
on the camels' feet. Before a solution to the problem could be
reached, the military's concern turned to the approaching North-South
tensions and the experiment languished. The camels were
transported to Fort Tejon for temporary quartering under the care of
Ali until they could be shipped to California for disposition. Hi
Jolly chose to stay in the United States following the experiment and
following a stint as an Army scout became a prospector until his death
in 1902 at Quartzsite, Arizona.
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For more information:
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| Hickok, J. B. "Wild Bill" |
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Wild Bill
J. B. Hickok
Killed by the assassin
Jack M'Call
In Deadwood,
Black Hills
Aug. 2d 1876
Pard, we will meet again in the Happy
Hunting Ground
To part no more,
Goodbye
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It's difficult to
separate "dime novel" fiction about Hickok from fact, and it is quite
likely that he killed nowhere near the hundred men as recounted by
some. There is no doubt, however, that he was a skilled fighter and
dispatched at least twenty enemies with gun and knife. He fought
in the Union Army during the Civil war and later earned his living as
an Army scout, gambler, gunfighter, and lawman. Hickok's icy
bravado was legendary, and once when threatened by an armed enemy who
claimed he could kill a bird on the wing with one pistol shot, Hickok
mockingly replied, "Did the crow have a pistol? Was he shooting
back? I will be." In early August, 1876, Hickok was shot in
the back while playing a game of poker in Deadwood. He was
holding a pair of aces and eights at the time, a combination that has
since been known as the dead man's hand.
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For more information:
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| Hood, Robin |
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Here underneath dis laitl stean
Laiz Robert
Earl of Huntingdon.
Near arcir
ver az hie sae geud,
An pipl
kauld im Robin Heud:
Sic an
utlawz as hi an is men
Vil
England niver si agen.
Obiit 24 Kal, dekembris, 1247
(Here underneath this
little stone
Lies Robert, Earl of
Huntingdon.
No archer was as he so
good,
And people called him
Robin Hood.
Such an outlaw as he,
and his men,
Will England never see again.)
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Although Robin Hood is clearly a fictitious character, his
legend stems from tales of actual brigands, as Robinhood was a generic
term used in the 1200s to denote any fugitive outlaw. The
character of Robin Hood has changed drastically over the years.
In
the earliest tales, he is vengeful, violent, and self-centered.
The
Robin Hood of those tales would never rob from the rich and give to the
poor, and it is highly unlikely that he would ever fight for the rights
of others. The Robin Hood gravestone in West Yorkshire with its
fractured Middle English epitaph has been shown
to be a 17th century creation. |
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For more
information:
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Jefferson, Thomas
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Here is
buried
Thomas
Jefferson
Author of
the
Declaration
of American Independence
of the
statute of
Virginia
for
Religious
Freedom
and Father
of the
University
of Virginia
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Jefferson's choice of
accomplishments for his epitaph is interesting and quite telling in
that he never mentions being President of the United States.
Neither does he mention that he was responsible for the Louisiana
Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the creation of the Library
of Congress, and the decades of peace following the revolution when
America walked a fine line of neutrality between England and France.
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For more information:
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| Jung, Carl |
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VOCATUS ATQUE
NON VOCATUS
DEUS ADERIT
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Called or
not called
God is present
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Jung
popularized this old Spartan proverb that he found in the writings of
Desiderius Erasmus. During Jung's life, it was inscribed above
the door to his home. Upon his death, it was engraved upon his
tomb.
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For more information:
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| Keats, John |
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This Grave
contains all that was Mortal
of a
Young English Poet
Who
on his Death Bed
in the Bitterness of his Heart
at the Malicious Power of his Enemies
Desired
these words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone
"Here lies One Whose Name was writ in
Water."
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Keats, one of
the best and now most read English Romantic poets, met with
continuously harsh criticism of his works while he lived. He
contracted tuberculosis while caring for his brother and eventually
succumbed to the disease in Rome. His last request was to be
buried in an unnamed grave in that city's Protestant Cemetary. His
friends, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, believed that his life
was finally "snuffed out" by an excessively cruel of his most recent
work, "Endymion."
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For more information:
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| Laurel, Stan and Oliver
Hardy |
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Stan
Laurel
A Master of Comedy
His Genius in the Art
Humor Brought Gladness
To the World he Loved.
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Oliver Hardy
A Genius of Comedy
His Talent Brought Joy and
Laughter to All the World.
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The famous comedy team performed
together for thirty years from 1926 to their last appearnce on British
television in 1955. Between 1927 and 1940, they made sixt-shorts
and thirteen feature films for the Hal Roach Studio. When Oliver
died from a stroke shortly after their last television appearance, Stan
went into a deep depression that prevented him from even attending the
funeral. "Babe would understand," he explained.
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For more information:
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| Lindbergh, Charles and Anne |
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If I take the wings of
the morning
and
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea
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The Lindberghs' epitaph is taken
from his favorite Psalm; Psalms 139:9, "“If I take the wings of the
morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your
hand shall lead me and Your right hand shall hold me.”
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For more information:
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London, Jack
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The Stone the Builders Rejected
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Jack London
was the most popular and prominent writer of his age. His epitaph
is first found in Psalms 118:22 ("The stone the builders rejected has
become the capstone") and it recurs at Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke
20:17, Acts 4:11, and 1 Peter 2:7, making it one of the New Testament's
most repeated phrases. The epitaph, however, has nothing to do
with religion and everything to do with paternal rejection.
London was born out of wedlock. When, as an adult, he identified
his father and wrote him a letter, he received a curt reply
emphatically stating that not only had the man not married his mother,
but that as he was impotent, paternity was impossible.
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For more information:
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| Lovecraft, Howard Phillip |
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Although Lovecraft was never a very
popular author during his lifetime, today his works of horror,
especially the Necronomicon
and those of the Cthulhu Mythos, are regarded as classics.
Lovecraft died impoverished and was buried under his parents
monument. Forty years later, fans raised money to purchase a
headstone for him and had it inscribed with a quotation from one of his
personal letters. Graffiti quoting aline from one of his stories
occassionally appears at his gravesite: "That is not dead which can
eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die." |
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For more information:
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Lugosi,
Bela (Béla Ferenc
Dezső Blaskó)
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Bela Lugosi's
film career stalled in the late 1930s partly as a result of
typecasting, partly as a result of a British ban on horror films, and
partly as a result of his increasing dependance on opiates to ease the
pain of a sever back injury. With time his addition completely
stopped his career and he was living in poverty when odd-ball
filmmaker, Ed Wood, located him. Wood promised Lugosi roles in
his planned films if he agreed to be treated for his addiction.
Lugosi agreed and Wood kept his promise, and the men became good
friends until Lugosi's death. Lugosi was buried wearing one of
his Dracula capes.
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more information:
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