The Titanic Halifax Connection - Fairview Lawn Cemetery

I recently visited Halifaz, Nova Scotia on a New England Cruise.  While there, I visited Fairview Lawn Cemetery where over 200 of the victims of the Titanic disaster were buried. The story of how the bodies found their final resting place there is both fascinating and tragic.

Two days after the the Titanic sank in 1912, the White Star Line dispatched the first of four Canadian vessels to search for bodies in the area of the sinking.  Two of the vessels, the Mackay-Bennett and the Minia, were cable ships based in Halifax.  Their crews normally worked on the high seas, repairing the underwater telegraph cables connecting North America and Europe. Suddenly they found themselves on a tragic mission.

Already in port, the Mackay-Bennett was able to leave Halifax almost immediately. She sailed on April 17th with a minister, an undertaker, and a cargo of ice, coffins, and canvas bags. The Minia was already at sea and had to come back to Halifax to take on similar supplies, and she departed on April 22nd.

Of all the recovery vessels, the Mackay-Bennett saw the worst of the tragedy and became known as the "Death Ship".  Her crew recovered 306 bodies from the sea and some of the burials had to be held at sea.
In all, 209 bodies were brought back to the wharf in Halifax. The class barriers, so typical of life on the Titanic, were carefully respected even in death.  The bodies of first-class passengers were uploaded in coffins, second and third-class passengers in canvas bags, and the crew on open stretchers. A temporary morgue was set up. The bodies were numbered for identification purposes. Observations were recorded
about the victims, their clothing, jewelry and other personal effects. Some bodies were never identified and their stones remain nameless. Only 59 bodies that were identified were shipped out to their families because White Star lines refused to pay for the shipping.  Only those were shipped that the families could afford to pay the cost.  They did provide small granite blocks upon which the survivors name and number were engraved.  In some cases, families, friends, or other groups paid for larger, more elaborate gravestones.

The bodies were buried in three Halifax cemeteries, the majority of which are interred at Fairview Lawn Cemetery.

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Hollywood Forever Cemetery is at 6000 Santa Monica Blvd. in the Hollywod district of Los Angeles, California. It is adjacent to the north wall, or back, of  Paramount Studios, which, with RKO Studios, bought 40 acres by 1920. The Beth Olam Cemetery, in the southwestern section, is a dedicated Jewish burial ground.

The cemetery was founded in 1899 on 100 acres as Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery. By the end of the 20th century,  it was neglected and run down.. Allegations of financial mismanagement caused the State of California to forbid the sale of plots. On the verge of closure in a bankruptcy proceeding, Tyler Cassity of Forever Enterprises purchased the now 62-acre property in 1998 for $375,000. He renamed it "Hollywood Forever," and restored and refurbished it.
The cemetery is now active. The longtime ban on the sale of plots was rescinded when the Forever Network restored the cemetery, and space for more graves remains.

It is a good place to view the "Hollywood" sign on the hillside in the distance.

Click on the link below to find the names of the famous people buried there.

http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=8033

Twin Gables Gone Photos



The walk to nowhere



The house is gone!





Friend climbing the wall at 783 BelAir Road
to take pictures.



Dying to Get In...the Stars Final Homes

My dad used to say "People are just dying to get in there!" everytime we passed a cemetery when I was growing up. It's corny, I know, but I gave up a long time ago trying to see "live" stars and have dedicated my actions to seeing their "final" homes, so to speak. I would like to write a series of articles about the cemeteries where you can see the star's final resting places.

                                      WESTWOOD MEMORIAL VILLAGE 

MAP    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1218+Glendon+Avenue,+Los+Angeles,+CA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=27.919765,78.662109&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1218+Glendon+Ave,+Los+Angeles,+California+90024&ll=34.057531,-118.440084&spn=0.007111,0.019205&z=16

Located in the Westwood section of Los Angeles near UCLA, this is my favorite cemetery to visit. Nestled between tall office buildings and residential homes off of Wilshire, it is difficult to find but worth the effort. Of the 1125 persons buried there, 238 are famous people.  With the recent  addition of a new section to the south and beautiful rose gardens, it is the final resting place of such stars as Marilyn Monroe, Farrah Fawcett, Jack Lemmon, Walter Mathau, Lew Ayres, Eve Arden, Eva Gabor, Peter Lawford, Dean Martin,

                    
1218 Glendon Ave.
Los Angeles, Ca. 90024
                   

Truman Capote, and Natalie Wood to name a few.  To see a complete listing and location of the graves, click the link below.  Because it is small, the graves and crypts are very easy to find.

http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=8440

                                      

TWIN GABLES GONE

Jeanette and Gene Raymond’s home of twenty-five years has been demolished. The home at 783 Bel Air Road was a wedding present when the couple wed in 1937.  They lived there until 1963 when the house was sold because of Jeanette’s declining health.

Nicknamed “Twin Gables” because of its English Tudor style and twin roof peaks, the house was built in 1926, with 5,432 square feet, 4 bedrooms and 4 baths.  It featured a swimming pool with a guest house behind the pool.  During World War II, Jeanette and Gene held open houses on Sunday afternoons for soldiers.  Nelson Eddy helped plant and maintain the rose garden.

The house was purchased in 2007 by billionaire Jerry Perenchino who owns the property across the street at 750 Bel Air Road whose exterior was used for the TV show “The Beverly Hillbillies”.  He also purchased 800 Nimes Road in 2009 which is behind his home.  The Twin Gables property is now vacant land as reported by the Los Angeles County Assessor.

I first drove by Twin Gables in 1964.  The Raymonds had already moved by this time but it still could be viewed easily from the street.  In recent years, due to high walls and dense shrubbery, you could not tell if the house was still there.   While attending the recent Nelson and Jeanette Birthday Meeting at the Sportsman’s Club in June, 2010, the MacEddy group visited many of the former homes of Jeanette and Nelson.  A friend climbed the wall at Twin Gables and took pictures over the wall and also stood in the trunk of a car to take more pictures.  The house was indeed gone and replaced by something that resembled grape arbor supports with no plants.  The interior stone garden walls still remained with paths leading to nowhere. 

The East Gate Bel Air community in which Twin Gables was located, was the original Bel Air tract founded and opened by Alphonzo  E.  Bell, Sr. in 1922. Having made his money with the discovery of oil on his Santa Fe property, he purchased a large ranch house atop what is now Bel Air Road. He was overwhelmed by the beauty of the area and saw the potential to develop the land into a magnificent community with roads and generous lots.  He used Italian names for the streets.  He opened a sales office in Stone Canyon which is now a suite in the Hotel Bel Air. He owned the development company until 1945.  After several heart attacks, he sold his holdings in the Bel Air Land Company.

Twin Gables has an interesting and colorful history.   The Raymonds sold the house in 1962 to a personal friend, Bo Roos, business manager to stars such as John Wayne, Fred MacMurray, Red Skelton, and Lloyd Nolan who 3 years later would deliver the eulogy at Jeanette’s funeral.   The house was then purchased by John and Michelle Phillips of the singing group “The Mammas and the Pappas.”  They renovated the house and held a large New Years Eve bash there in 1968 that included such notable guests as Charles Manson who was allowed to park his van on the property for a time.  In the 1970’s the house was occupied by Sly Stone of the group Sly and the Family Stone who was firmly entrenched in the drug culture of the day.

For a time, the property was owned by the Japan Bbc Corporation who sold it in 2006 to Melvin and Bren Simon of Indianapolis, Indiana.  Mr. Simon was owner of the Simon Investment Corporation whose chief business was developing and managing shopping centers such as the Mall of the Americas.  For a time he dabbled in the movie business but quickly decided that wasn’t for him.  The property was then sold to Mr. Perenchio in 2007 who had the house demolished.