A
reader called a few days ago, asking where John
Wesley Hardin, one of East Texas’
most famous outlaws, was buried.
His call brought up the question of where
other famous people are buried in Texas and elsewhere.
Hardin,
by the way, is buried in Concordia Cemetery in El
Paso, where he was shot in the head in 1895 by Constable John Selman.
Clyde Barrow of Bonnie
and Clyde was shot and killed in a stolen Ford in 1934 in Louisiana. He was
buried in Western Heights Cemetery at Dallas.
Bonnie Parker, Clyde’s partner in crime, was killed at the same
time, but she was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, also in Dallas.
Jesse
James, who spent a lot of time in Texas, was
buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery at Kearney, Missouri. He was shot in the head
at the James home in 1882 by Bob Ford, but there is a legend that he did not die
and moved to Granbury, Texas,
where he was buried. (See Jesse James in Texas
by Bob Bowman)
Frank James, who lived a quiet life on the family
farm, died in 1915 and was buried at Hill Park Cemetery in Missouri.
Another
Granbury legend says John Wilkes Booth did not die after shooting Abraham
Lincoln in 1865, but escaped, recovered from his wounds and was also buried in
the Texas town. (See Did
John Wilkes Booth Live In Texas? by C. F. Eckhardt)
John Wayne,
whose real name was Marion Michael Morrison, made some of the world’s best western
films. He died in 1970 and was buried at Pacific View Memorial Park at Newport
Beach, California.
Sam Houston, the first and third presidents
of the Republic of Texas, died at his farm near Huntsville
in 1863. He is buried in Huntsville’s
Oakwood Cemetery.
Judge
Roy Bean of Langtry,
known as the “Law West of the Pecos,” is buried in Del
Rio Cemetery on the Texas-Mexico border. Bean once fined a corpse $40 for
carrying a concealed weapon.
Quanah
Parker, the son of Comanche chief Pete
Nacona and Cynthia Ann
Parker, a white woman taken captive as a child at Fort
Parker in Texas, is buried at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
He died in 1911.
Will Rogers, who also spent a lot of time in Texas,
died in an airplane crash at Point Barrow, Alaska, in 1935. He was buried in Forest
Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Belle
Starr, who rode with William Quantrill and his guerillas during
the Civil War, was killed in 1889 and was buried at her cabin at Eufaula, Oklahoma.
Trigger, Roy Rogers’ palomino, died in 1965 and was mounted in
a rearing position. He was on display at the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum
in Branson, Missouri, until the museum closed.
Smokey the Bear,
who became a symbol of fighting forest fires, died in 1976 at a Washington Zoo.
His body was buried in the Smokey Bear Historical Park. near Lincoln, New Mexico.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas August 22, 2010Column.
A weekly column syndicated
in 109 East Texas newspapers |
