Kensico Cemetery
Kensico Cemetery is a cemetery in Valhalla, Westchester Co., New York, founded in 1889, when many New York City cemeteries were becoming full and rural cemeteries were founded near the railroads which served the city. Initially 250-acres, it was expanded to 600 acres in 1905, and reduced to 461 acres in 1912 when a portion was sold to the neighboring Gate of Heaven Cemetery.Many entertainment figures of the early nineteenth century were buried here. The cemetery has a special section for members of the National Vaudeville Association, some of whom died in abject poverty.
British spy Major John AndrÃÂé was captured in 1780 in a house located on what is now cemetery ground.
Notable burials include:
- Ed Barrow, (1868-1953), hall of fame baseball manager and executive
- Henri Bendel, (1868-1936), fashion designer, famed for the Bendel bonnet
- Paul Bonwit, (1862-1939) founder of Bonwit Teller department store
- Evangeline Booth, (1865-1950), evangelist, daughter of Salvation Army founder
- Billie Burke, (1885-1970), actress, played "Glinda the Good" in The Wizard of Oz
- Paddy Chayefsky, (1923-1981), screenwriter, winner of three Academy Awards
- Harry Cooper, (1904-2000), hall of fame golfer
- Tommy Dorsey, (1905-1956), swing-era trombonist
- Sherman Edwards, (1919-1981), Tony Award winning composer and songwriter
- Geraldine Farrar, (1882-1967), opera singer
- Harry Frazee, (1880-1929), owner of the Boston Red Sox who sold Babe Ruth
- Fred Friendly, (1915-1998), broadcaster
- Lou Gehrig, (1903-1941), baseball player who gave his name to Lou Gehrig's disease
- Al Hodge, (1912-1979), actor
- Danny Kaye, (1913-1987), comedic actor
- Hebert Henry Lehman, (1878-1963), politician
- Dorothy Loudon, (1933-2003), Tony Award winning actress
- Anne Nichols, (1891-1966), playwright and screenwriter
- David Graham Phillips, (1867-1911), jounalist and novelist
- Harriet Quimby, (1875-1912), pioneer aviatrix
- Sergei Rachmaninoff, (1873-1943), composer
- Ayn Rand, (1905-1982), author
- David Sarnoff, (1891-1971), broadcaster who received the distress call of the Titanic
- Fay Templeton, (1865-1939), Broadway star
- John North Willys, (1873-1935), automobile manufacturer
- Florenz Ziegfeld, (1869-1932) producer of the Ziegfeld Follies