Kensico Cemetery

Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York

The Tower at the upper entrance to Kensico Cemetery

Mineola Lake in Kensico Cemetery

The statue of an elk in Kensico Cemetery

Kensico Cemetery, located in Valhalla, Westchester County, New York, was founded in 1889, when many New York City cemeteries were becoming full, and rural cemeteries were being created near the railroads that served the city. Initially 250 acres (1.0 km²), it was expanded to 600 acres (2.4 km²) in 1905, but reduced to 461 acres (1.9 km²) in 1912, when a portion was sold to the neighboring Gate of Heaven Cemetery. Several baseball players are buried in this cemetery.

Many entertainment figures of the early twentieth century, including the Russian-born Sergei Rachmaninoff, were buried here. The cemetery has a special section for members of the Actors' Fund of America and the National Vaudeville Association, some of whom died in abject poverty.

Sharon Gardens is a 76-acre (31 ha) section of Kensico Cemetery, which was created in 1953 for Jewish burials.

Notable interments in Kensico division

• Richard Abbott (1899–1986) – Actor. Plot: Actors' Fund Section, Lot 453
• Virginia Admiral (1915–2000) – Painter and poet, mother of Robert De Niro
• Elizabeth Chase Allen (1832–1911) – Author and poet
• Glenn Anders (1889–1981), American actor
• Edward Franklin Albee II (1857–1930), Vaudeville impresario
• John Emory Andrus (1841–1934), mayor of Yonkers, New York, and a U.S. Congressman
• Peter Arno (1904–1968), cartoonist
• Anne Bancroft (1931–2005), stage, screen, and television actress. Her most notable performance was 'Mrs. Robinson' in The Graduate, Wife of Mel Brooks
• Wendy Barrie (1912–1978), actress
• Ed Barrow (1868–1953), hall of fame baseball manager and executive
• Marion Bauer (1882–1955), American composer
• Malcolm Lee Beggs (1907–1956) Actor. Cause of death: Murdered. Plot: Actors' Fund
• Henri Bendel (1868–1936), fashion designer, famed for the Bendel bonnet
• Vivian Blaine (1921–1995), Actress/singer.
• William Blaisdell (1865–1931) Actor. Plot: Actors' Fund
• Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919), Romanticist painter
• Paul Bonwit (1862–1939), founder of Bonwit Teller department store
• Evangeline Booth (1865–1950), evangelist, daughter of Salvation Army founder, fourth General of The Salvation Army
• Herbert Booth (1862–1926), songwriter, son of Salvation Army founder
• Sully Boyar (Irvin) (1923–2001), Stage and film actor. Plot: Actors' Fund Lot 327
• Russ Brown (1892–1964), actor
• Billie Burke (1885–1970), actress.
• Henry Burr (1882–1941), Canadian singer of popular songs
• William J. Butler (1860–1927), Irish silent film actor
• John Call (1908–1973), Actor. Plot: Actors' Fund Lot 427
• Ralph Chambers (1892–1968) Actor. Plot: Actors' Plot Lot 400
• Andy Clark (1894–1965), Actor. Plot: Actors' Fund
• Andy Coakley (1882–1963), baseball player
• Frank Conroy (1890–1964), British film and stage actor
• Bigelow Cooper, (1867–1953) Actor. Plot: Actors' Fund
• Harry Cooper (1904–2000), hall of fame golfer
• Frederick E. Crane (1869–1947), Chief Judge of the NY Court of Appeals
• Cheryl Crawford (1902–1986), theatrical producer
• Milton Cross (1897–1975), radio announcer
• Edward W. Curley (1873–1940), U.S. Congressman
• George Ticknor Curtis (1812–1894), American author, writer, historian and lawyer
• Charles Dalton (1869–1942) Actor. Plot: Actors' Fund
• Harry Davenport (1866–1949), American film and stage actor
• Olive Deering (1918–1986), actress
• William Wallace Denslow (1856–1915) illustrator.
• Robert De Niro, Sr., artist, father of actor Robert De Niro
• Peter DeRose, (1900–1953), Hall of Fame composer
• Elliott Dexter (1870–1941), American film and stage actor
• Lew Dockstader (1856–1924), vaudeville comedian.^[1]
• Luigi Palma di Cesnola, (1832–1904) Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
• Tommy Dorsey (1905–1956), swing–era trombonist
• J. Gordon Edwards (1867–1925), prolific silent film director
• Sherman Edwards (1919–1981), Tony Award winning composer and songwriter
• Angna Enters (1897–1989), entertainer
• Judith Evelyn (1913–1967), stage actress
• Geraldine Farrar (1882–1967), opera singer
• Sid Farrar (1859–1935), Major League baseball player
• Emanuel Feuermann (1902–1942), master cellist
• Ezio Flagello (1931–2009) Opera Singer. Plot: Section 10, Lot 87, Grave 2
• Gloria Foster (1933–2001) Actress. Plot: Actor's Fund Plot
• Alexander Frank (1866–1939) Actor. Plot: Actors' Fund Lot
• Harry Frazee (1880–1929), owner of the Boston Red Sox
• Lou Gehrig (1903–1941), Hall of Fame baseball player
• Ulu Grosbard (1929–2012) Motion picture and stage director, producer
• Marion Harris (1896–1944), American popular singer
• Valerie Jill Haworth (1945–2011) British movie and stage actress
• Grace Henderson (1860–1944), stage actress
• Gustave Herter (1830–1898), furniture maker and interior decorator
• Al Hodge (1912–1979), actor.
• May Irwin (1862–1938), stage comedian
• Danny Kaye (1913–1987), comedic actor
• Guy Kibbee (1882–1956), American stage and film actor
• Joseph Kilgour (1863–1933), Canadian actor of the silent era
• Ruth Laredo (1937–2005), pianist
• William Van Duzer Lawrence (1842–1927), founder of Sarah Lawrence College
• Herbert H. Lehman (1878–1963), politician
• Jeffreys Lewis (abt. 1852–1926), stage actress
• Joseph J. Little (1841–1913), U.S. Representative from New York
• Cissie Loftus (1876–1943), Glasgow, Scottish–born and reared actress, singer, comedian and vaudevillian
• Dorothy Loudon (1933–2003), Tony Award winning actress
• Tommy Manville (1894–1967), heir to the Johns Manville asbestos fortune
• Jack McGowan (1894–1977), Broadway writer, performer, and producer
• Claudia McNeil (1917–1993), motion picture and television actress
• Herman A. Metz (1867–1934), U.S. Congressman
• Anna Moffo (1932–2006), soprano
• William Muldoon (1852–1933), America's first wrestling champion
• Allan Nevins (1890–1971), American historian and journalist
• Anne Nichols (1891–1966), playwright and screenwriter
• Carlotta Nillson (1876–1951), stage actress
• Caroline Love Goodwin O'Day (1875–1943), United States Representative from New York
• Eulace Peacock (1914–1996), track star who beat Jesse Owens a majority of the time
• Ann Pennington (1893–1971), popular Ziegfeld stage star
• David Graham Phillips (1867–1911), journalist and novelist
• Harriet Quimby (1875–1912), pioneer aviatrix
• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), composer, pianist, and conductor
• Ayn Rand (1905–1982), author, philosopher
• Jacob Ruppert (1867–1939), owned the New York Yankees
• David Sarnoff (1891–1971), broadcaster and head of RCA
• Fritzi Scheff (1879–1954), American actress and vocalist
• Gordon Scott (1926–2007), actor
• Gil Scott-Heron (1949–2011) American soul and jazz poet, musician
• Ann Shoemaker (1891–1978), American actress
• Richard B. Shull (1929–1999), American character actor
• Ivan F. Simpson (1875–1951), Scottish character actor
• Leo Singer (1877–1950), manager of the Singer Midgets, a popular vaudeville group in the first half of the twentieth century.
• Alison Skipworth (1863–1952), English stage and screen actress
• Alfred Holland Smith (1863–1924), president of the New York Central Railroad
• Howard Smith (1893–1968), American character actor
• Mildred Joanne Smith (1921–2015), American actress and educator^[2]
• Peter Moore Speer (1862–1933), U.S. Congressman
• Ellsworth Milton Statler (1863–1928), American hotel pioneer
• Henry Stephenson (1871–1956), actor
• Max Stern (businessman) (1898–1982), entrepreneur, philanthropist
• Lewis Stone (1879–1953), film character actor
• Oscar W. Swift (1869–1940), U.S. Congressman
• Fay Templeton (1865–1939), Broadway star
• Gertrude Thanhouser (1880–1951), actress
• Benjamin I. Taylor (1877–1946), U.S. Congressman
• Deems Taylor (1885–1966), composer and journalist
• Wen-Ying Tsai (1928–2013), Pioneer American cybernetic sculptor
• William L. Ward (1856–1933), U.S. Congressman
• Charles Weidman (1901–1975), pioneer of American modern dance
• James E. West (1876–1948), first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America (Section 187, Lot 14037, Computer Number 15669)
• Spencer Wishart (1889–1914), American racecar driver
• William B. Williams (1923–1986), disc jockey
• John North Willys (1873–1935), automobile manufacturer
• Charles E. Wilson (1886–1972), president of General Electric
• Francis Wilson (1854–1935), American actor
• Blanche Yurka (1887–1974), American theatre and film actress
• Herbert Zelenko (1906–1979), U.S. Congressman
• Florenz Ziegfeld (1869–1932), producer of the Ziegfeld Follies

Notable interments in Sharon Gardens division

• Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981), screenwriter, winner of three Academy Awards
• Fred Friendly (1915–1998), broadcaster
• Robert Merrill (1917–2004), baritone, Metropolitan opera star
• Beverly Sills (1929–2007), operatic soprano

Image gallery

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  Mayer tumulus

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  Egyptian Sphinx Tomb

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  The Kane Lodge sphere

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  Pinkney Pyramid

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  Mecca Temple

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  The tomb of Phineas Lounsbery

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  The Ayer statue

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  Grave of Lou Gehrig

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  The Friars Club Monument

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  Tomb of J. Gordon Edwards with minaret

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  Entrance to Sharon Gardens

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  Rules and regulations

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  An interesting above-ground tomb

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  Daniel monument

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  The monument of Judge John Fitch

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  Amos Sulka mausoleum

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  The cemetery on the Metro North line

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  An interesting cross

References

1. "Lew Dockstader, Minstrel, Is Dead. Famous Comedian Succumbs to a Bone Tumor at His Daughter's Home at 68". New York Times. October 27, 1924. Retrieved 2015-02-02.
2. "Mildred Hepburn Obituary". Legacy.com. Retrieved 22 August 2015.

External links

• Kensico Cemetery homepage
• Kensico Cemetery at Find a Grave

Coordinates: 41°04′40″N 73°47′11″W / 41.0779°N 73.7865°W