Celebrity Graveland

April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000

Like most latter-day Gen Xers, I formed most of my pop-culture knowledgebase throughout the 1990s watching The Simpsons. The writers of the iconic show were clearly of a generation previous to mine and would pepper in references to things from their youth, and thereby introduce them to us youngins.

So, it should come as no surprise that my first introduction to percussionist Tito Puente was from the 1995 cliffhanger episode “Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part 1” in which Lisa Simpson wanted to use the city’s newfound riches to hire Puente as the music teacher. To this day, I can’t hear the name “Tito Puente” without uttering to myself “He robbed the school of TITO!”

But, I digress.

Ernest Puente Jr. was born in New York City to Puerto Rican immigrants. Even at an early age, young “Ernestito” was known to bang on anything that made noise. His parents paid for piano lessons, but once he found percussion, that was it. Puente would go on to popularize Caribbean music such as mambo and cha cha in the U.S. in the 1950s. His trademark timbales became a Latin/Jazz mainstay for decades. Tito was a bandleader and producer but also wrote songs. His most famous composition was “Oye Cómo Va” which was later popularized by guitar legend, Carlos Santana.

Puente earned several awards including a Billboard Latin Music Lifetime Achievement Award, induction into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame and a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award…which was given to him posthumously following his death in 2000 at the age of 77.

Burial

Saint Anthony’s Catholic Cemetery – Nanuet, NY

Specific Location

Lordes Section, Range 4 – Tito is buried in the northeastern corner of this section, just 4 ranges (north/south rows) east of the street, even with the green “3C” marker. His marker faces east.

This entry was posted on July 29, 2024 at 8:58 am and is filed under Saint Anthony's Catholic Cemetery with tags Bandleaders, Musicians, Saint Anthony's Catholic Cemetery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.