Alice Faye and Phil Harris

Posted in Forest Lawn Cathedral City with tags , , , , , on October 19, 2026 by Cade

May 05, 1915 – May 09, 1998
June 24, 1904 – August 11, 1995

Celebrity couples take note. This is how you do it.

Alice Faye was a singer and actor who was one of the top box office draws throughout the 1930s and ’40s. Working under contract for 20th Century Fox (and its head, Darryl Zanuck), Faye made over 30 movies during her early career including hits like In Old Chicago, Alexander’s Ragtime Band and The Gang’s All Here. Her most famous song, “You’ll Never Know” from the 1943 movie Hello, Frisco. Hello won an Academy Award and remained her signature for year.

Phil Harris started his career in show business playing in a number of swing orchestras in California, including several that he founded. He was known for his distinct baritone singing voice and comic timing. He appeared in dozens of movies and television shows over his decades-long career. In 1950, he recorded the hit novelty song “The Thing”. Harris also did extensive voice acting work including iconic roles in classic Disney films like The Jungle Book, The Aristocats and Robin Hood. His version of “The Bare Necessities” from The Jungle Book remains a fan favorite to this day.

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Eddie Fisher

Posted in Cypress Lawn Memorial Park (Colma) with tags , on October 12, 2026 by Cade

August 10, 1928 – September 22, 2010

Edwin Jack “Eddie” Fisher was a popular teen idol in the 1950s. He knew he loved to sing from a young age and appeared in talent shows and local radio programs in his hometown of Philadelphia. He gained some national exposure after appearing on Eddie Cantor‘s radio show after Cantor saw Fisher perform in a Catskills resort. At the age of 22, Fisher was drafted and served in the Korean war. In the army, he once again gained fame as a singer and even made television appearances in uniform.

By the time he was out of the army, he had enough experience and notoriety that he easily booked famous nightclubs and, within a year, he had his own TV show.

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Groucho Marx

Posted in Eden Memorial Park with tags , , , on October 5, 2026 by Cade

October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977

Widely considered one of the sharpest wits in American comedy history, Groucho Marx was as known for his zings and punchlines as he was for his distinctive appearance.

As the middle of 5 boys growing up on the upper east side of Manhattan around the turn of the 20th century, Julius Henry Marx wanted to be a doctor. The only thing that stood in the way of that goal was an abject lack of money, talented siblings, a famous Vaudevillian uncle and mother with dreams. All the boys were talented, but Julius could sing like an angel. By the time he was 15, he was on tour singing with the Gene Leroy Trio. By 19, his mom had he and his brothers Arthur (Harpo) and Milton (Gummo) singing in vaudeville houses throughout the northeast. Billed as “The Four Nightingales”, they ended up moving to the Midwest, where the boys started riffing on stage when shows didn’t go well. They soon found out two things: 1) They were better at being funny than singing. And 2) Audiences LOVED it.

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Sally Ride

Posted in Woodlawn Cemetery Santa Monica with tags , on September 28, 2026 by Cade

May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012

Sally Kristen Ride was a celebrated American physicist whose work with X-rays – particularly their relative abilities and behavior in interstellar space – led to her being named as an astronaut in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Ride was selected as part of the first class of Space Shuttle astronauts, or “Group 8.”

Group 8 was notable, not only because of the Shuttle program, but for the fact that it was the first astronaut class to include women and minorities. Including Ride, there were a total of 6 women in the cohort of 35. All 6 would eventually fly in space, but someone had to be first.

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Ritchie Valens

Posted in San Fernando Mission Cemetery with tags , , , on September 21, 2026 by Cade

May 13, 1941 – February 03, 1959

Three hit songs, a coin flip and a day that changed American music forever. That’s the bitter legacy of Richard Steven Valenzuela.

Better known by his stage name, Ritchie Valens, the young rock and roll pioneer gained popularity playing theaters in his native San Fernando valley in California. He was discovered in the spring of 1958 and signed to a record deal while still in high school. His first day in the studio, he recorded “Come On, Let’s Go.” The single immediately sold well and within months, Valens had recorded a new single called “Donna”, based on his real-life girlfriend at the time. “Donna” was released with a B-Side recording of his take on the Mexican folk song, “La Bamba”. The record sold a million copies and high school was no longer needed.

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John Phillips

Posted in Forest Lawn Cathedral City with tags , , on September 14, 2026 by Cade

August 30, 1935 – March 18, 2001

Look, life is complicated.

Greenwich Village in New York City in the early 1960s was a hotbed for musical creativity and countercultural movements. Nearly two decades into the influential American Folk Revolution, a new generation of singers and musicians all gravitated toward the lower east side of Manhattan. It was in this incubator, that a young singer-songwriter from Virginia named John Phillips met Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot.

Phillips had moved to New York with his band, the Journeymen, and soon-to-be wife, Michelle Gilliam, in search of a record deal. The Journeymen recorded 3 albums with Capitol Records and gained a fair following. Phillps married Michelle, the British Invasion started getting ALL the attention and the Journeymen quietly fell apart. John and Michelle continued to perform as a duo in and around the Village. In 1964, Denny Doherty – fresh off the breakup of his own group, the Mugwumps – joined them. Shortly thereafter, fellow Mugwump, Cass Elliot, also joined and the Mamas & the Papas was born.

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Quincy Jones

Posted in Hillside Memorial Park with tags , , , on September 7, 2026 by Cade

March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024

If you had to choose one person, and one person only, to serve as a lens to view the entirety of 20th Century American music, you wouldn’t even need a full name. A single letter would more than suffice: Q

Quincy Jones was perhaps best known as the groundbreaking and uber-successful record producer that shaped pop music for decades. But, he was also a talented musician in his own right, playing trumpet and, eventually, keyboards with some of the biggest names on the planet. I’ll get the name dropping out of the way early so we can focus on his accomplishments, but throughout his extraordinary 70 year career, Jones worked with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughn, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Diana Ross, Billy Preston, Aretha Franklin, Lesley Gore, Little Richard, Chaka Kahn, George Benson, Tevin Campbell, Usher, Snoop Dogg and, of course, Michael Jackson.

And that’s not even counting the stars he worked with on the monumental 1985 charity recording of “We Are the World”…which he produced and conducted.

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Joe DiMaggio

Posted in Holy Cross Cemetery (Colma) with tags , , on August 31, 2026 by Cade

November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999

In 1924, on a playground in San Francisco, a baseball team made up of neighborhood kids paid $2 to entice a rival player to join their team. Little did anyone on that lot know that player would go on to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time. $2 for Joe DiMaggio? Even by 1920s standards, an absolute steal.

Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio was born in California to an Italian immigrant fisherman. He was one of nine kids in the family (two of his brothers also played baseball) and his father had hopes he would carry on the family business. Some time after the $2 trade, DiMaggio began playing minor league baseball and got pretty good, pretty quick. He set a Pacific Coast League record hitting safely in 61 straight games and was named the league MVP in his final season…a preamble of what was to come.

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Mary Wilson

Posted in Holy Cross Cemetery (CA) with tags , , , on August 24, 2026 by Cade

March 6, 1944 – February 8, 2021

Diana Ross may have been the most famous Supreme…but even she left the group. Only one member never left the Motown hitmakers: the legendary Mary Wilson.

Wilson founded the group (known originally as the Primettes) alongside schoolmate and friend, Florence Ballard, with Ross and Betty McGlown joining by recommendation from the Primes members, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams. By 1962, the group was a trio and had a contract with Motown and had changed their name to “the Supremes.” The next 7 years would be one of the most successful runs in American pop music history.

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James Caan

Posted in Eden Memorial Park with tags , on August 17, 2026 by Cade

March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022

“A lot of stars take a while to warm up – Caan was good from the beginning.” – Stephen Vagg

As a kid in New York, James Edmund Caan, fancied himself a boxer. He often fought in the streets with friends and when he went to college, football was his life. He never graduated from college and football soon took a back seat to something new and exciting for the young man: acting.

Off-Broadway led to Broadway, which led to television and, ultimately, film. By his mid-20s, Caan was filming alongside the likes of Olivia de Haviland, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. He gained fans – both the public and his co-stars – with every performance. In 1969, he starred in the movie, The Rain People, which was written a directed by Francis Ford Coppola and co-starred Robert Duvall.

It would not be the last time the three worked together.

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