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 which served the city. Initially 250 acres (1 km²), it was expanded to 600 acres (2.4 km²) in 1905, and reduced to 461 acres (1.9 km²) in 1912 when a portion was sold to the neighboring Gate of Heaven Cemetery.
Many entertainment figures of the early twentieth century 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 section of Kensico Cemetery which was created in 1953 for Jewish burials.
Notable burials
- John Alexander (actor), (1897-1982), American stage and film actor
- Glenn Anders, (1889-1981), American actor
- 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
- Wendy Barrie (1912–1978), actress
- Ed Barrow, (1868-1953), hall of fame baseball manager and executive
- Marion Bauer, (1882-1955), American composer
- Henri Bendel, (1868-1936), fashion designer, famed for the Bendel bonnet
- Vivian Blaine, (1921-1995), actress and singer
- 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
- Herbert Booth, (1862-1926), songwriter
- Russ Brown (actor), (1892-1964), actor
- Billie Burke, (1885-1970), actress, played "Glinda the Good Witch" in The Wizard of Oz
- Henry Burr, (1882-1941), Canadian singer of popular songs
- William J. Butler, (1860-1927), Irish silent film actor
- Paddy Chayefsky, (1923-1981), screenwriter, winner of three Academy Awards
- Andy Coakley, (1882-1963),baseball player
- Frank Conroy, (1890-1964}, British film and stage actor
- Harry Cooper, (1904-2000), hall of fame golfer
- Frederick E. Crane (1869-1947), Chief Judge of the NY Court of Appeals
- Cheryl Crawford, (1902-0986), theatrical producer
- Milton Cross, (1897-1975), radio announcer
- Edward W. Curley, (1873-1940), U.S. Congressman
- Harry Davenport, (1866-1949), American film and stage acor
- Olive Deering, actress, Miriam in Samson and Delilah and The Ten Commandments
- Robert De Niro, Sr., father of actor Robert De Niro
- William Wallace Denslow, (1856-1915), illustrator
- Peter DeRose (1896-1953), Hall of Fame composer
- Elliott Dexter, (1870-1941), American film and stage actor
- Luigi Palma di Cesnola, (1832-1904), Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
- Tommy Dorsey, (1905-1956), swing-era trombonist
- 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
- Gloria Foster,(1933-2001). Actress, The Matrix
- Harry Frazee, (1880-1929), owner of the Boston Red Sox who sold Babe Ruth
- Fred Friendly, (1915-1998), broadcaster
- Lou Gehrig, (1903-1941), Baseball Hall of Fame baseball player
- Marion Harris, (1896-1944), American popular singer
- Grace Henderson, (1860-1944), stage actress
- Al Hodge, (1912-1979), actor ("Captain Video", "The Green Hornet") and director/producer ("The Lone Ranger", "Challenge of the Yukon")
- 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 Sarah Lawrence College
- Herbert H. Lehman, (1878-1963), politician
- 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
- Jack McGowan, (1894-1977), Broadway, writer, performer, and producer
- Claudia McNeil, (1917-1993), motion picture and television actress
- Robert Merrill, (1917-2004), baritone, Metropolitan opera star, sang national anthem at Yankee Stadium
- 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
- Frank O'Connor (actor), (1897-1979), American actor and husband of novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand
- Caroline Love Goodwin O'Day, (1875-1943), United States Representative from New York
- Ann Pennington (Ziegfeld star), (1893-1971), popular 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, who starred in 6 Tarzan movies, including Tarzan's Greatest Adventure
- Ann Shoemaker, (1891-1978), American actress
- Richard B. Shull, (1929-1999), American character actor
- Alison Skipworth, (1863-1952), English stage and screen actress
- Alfred Holland Smith, (1863-1924), president of the New York Central Railroad
- Peter Moore Speer, (1862-1933), U.S. Congressman
- Ellsworth Milton Statler, (1863-1928), American hotel pioneer
- Henry Stephenson (1871-1956), actor
- Lewis Stone, (1879-1953), motion picture character actor
- Amos Sulka, founder of international mens apparel store that outfitted celebrities
- 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
- 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]
- William B. Williams (DJ), (1923-1986), disc jockey
- John North Willys, (1873-1935), automobile manufacturer
- Francis Wilson (actor), (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
See also
External links
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