Kensico Cemetery

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 that served the city. Initially 250 acres (1.0 km²), it was expanded to 600 acres (2.4 km²) in 1905, but 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, including the Russian-born Sergei Rachmaninoff, 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.

The cemetery contains four Commonwealth war graves, of three Canadian Army soldiers of World War I and a repatriated American Royal Air Force airman of World War II.^[1]

As of December 2021, eight Major League Baseball players are buried here, including Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Lou Gehrig.^[2]

Sharon Gardens is a 76-acre (31 ha) section of Kensico Cemetery, which was created in 1953 for Jewish burials.

Notable interments in Kensico division

Virginia Admiral (1915–2000), painter and poet, mother of Robert De Niro
Hadji Ali (c. 1887-92–1937), vaudeville performance artist
Elizabeth Akers Allen (1832–1911), author and poet
Glenn Anders (1889–1981), American actor
Edward Franklin Albee II (1857–1930), Vaudeville impresario
John Emory Andrus (1841–1934), mayor of Yonkers, New York, and U.S. Congressman
Peter Arno (1904–1968), cartoonist
Anne Bancroft (1931–2005), American actress
Wendy Barrie (1912–1978), actress
Ed Barrow (1868–1953), baseball manager and executive
Marion Bauer (1882–1955), American composer
Malcolm Lee Beggs (1907–1956) actor
Henri Bendel (1868–1936), fashion designer, creator of the Bendel bonnet
Vivian Blaine (1921–1995), actress and singer
William Blaisdell (1865–1931) Actor. Plot: Actors' Fund
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, fourth General of The Salvation Army
Herbert Booth (1862–1926), songwriter, son of Salvation Army founder
Sully Boyar (Irvin) (1923–2001), actor
Martin Bregman (1926–2018), film producer
Russ Brown (1892–1964), actor
Billie Burke (1884–1970), actress
Henry Burr (1882–1941), Canadian singer
William J. Butler (1860–1927), Irish silent film actor
John Call (1908–1973), actor
Cheng Chui Ping (1949–2014), 'Snakehead', human smuggler
Andy Coakley (1882–1963), baseball player
Frank Conroy (1890–1964), British film and stage actor
Bigelow Cooper, (1867–1953) actor
Harry Cooper (1904–2000), golfer
Frederick E. Crane (1869–1947), Chief Judge of the NY Court of Appeals
Cheryl Crawford (1902–1986), theatrical producer
Milton Cross (1897–1975), radio announcer
Edward W. Curley (1873–1940), U.S. Congressman
George Ticknor Curtis (1812–1894), American author, writer, historian and lawyer
Harry Davenport (1866–1949), American actor
Olive Deering (1918–1986), actress
William Wallace Denslow (1856–1915), illustrator
Robert De Niro, Sr., (1922—1993), artist, father of actor Robert De Niro
Peter DeRose, (1900–1953), Hall of Fame composer
Elliott Dexter (1870–1941), American film and stage actor
Lew Dockstader (1856–1924), vaudeville comedian.^[3]
Luigi Palma di Cesnola, (1832–1904) Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
Arthur Donaldson (actor) (1869-1955), stage and screen actor
Tommy Dorsey (1905–1956), swing–era trombonist
J. Gordon Edwards (1867–1925), silent film director
Sherman Edwards (1919–1981), Tony-Award winning composer and songwriter
Angna Enters (1897–1989), entertainer
Judith Evelyn (1909–1967), stage actress
Geraldine Farrar (1882–1967), opera singer
Sid Farrar (1859–1935), Major League baseball player, father of Geraldine Farrar
Emanuel Feuermann (1902–1942), master cellist
Sylvia Fine (1913-1991) lyricist, composer, and producer, and the wife of the comedian Danny Kaye
Ezio Flagello (1931–2009) opera singer
Gloria Foster (1933–2001) actress
Harry Frazee (1880–1929), owner of the Boston Red Sox
Lou Gehrig (1903–1941), Hall of Fame baseball player
Roy J. Glauber (1925–2018), Nobel Laureate-Physics
Ulu Grosbard (1929–2012) motion picture and stage director, producer
Marion Harris (1896–1944), American singer
Valerie Jill Haworth (1945–2011), British actress
Mrs. Julian Heath (1863–November 18, 1932), American radio personality
Grace Henderson (1860–1944), actress
Gustave Herter (1830–1898), furniture maker and interior decorator
Al Hodge (1912–1979), actor
May Irwin (1862–1938), comedian
Danny Kaye (1911–1987), comedic actor
Guy Kibbee (1882–1956), American actor
Joseph Kilgour (1863–1933), Canadian actor
Ruth Laredo (1937–2005), pianist
William Van Duzer Lawrence (1842–1927), founder of Sarah Lawrence College
Herbert H. Lehman (1878–1963), politician
Jeffreys Lewis (abt. 1852–1926), actress
Joseph J. Little (1841–1913), U.S. Representative from New York
Cissie Loftus (1876–1943), Scottish–born actress, singer, comedian and vaudevillian
Dorothy Loudon (1933–2003), Tony Award winning actress
Mario Majeroni (1870–1931), Italian-born actor, nephew of Adelaide Ristori
Tommy Manville (1894–1967), heir to the Johns Manville asbestos fortune
Jack McGowan (1894–1977), Broadway writer, performer, and producer
Claudia McNeil (1917–1993), actress
Herman A. Metz (1867–1934), U.S. Congressman
Anna Moffo (1932–2006), soprano singer
William Muldoon (1852–1933), wrestler
Allan Nevins (1890–1971), American historian and journalist
Anne Nichols (1891–1966), playwright and screenwriter
Carlotta Nillson (1876–1951), actress
Caroline Love Goodwin O'Day (1875–1943), United States Representative from New York
Eulace Peacock (1914–1996), track and field athlete
Ann Pennington (1893–1971), Ziegfeld actress
David Graham Phillips (1867–1911), journalist and novelist
Jesse S. Phillips (1871–1954), lawyer, assemblyman, State Insurance Superintendent, and insurance executive
Harriet Quimby (1875–1912), pioneer aviator
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), composer, pianist, and conductor
Ayn Rand (1905–1982), author, philosopher, playwright and screenwriter
Jacob Ruppert (1867–1939), owner of the New York Yankees
Soupy Sales (1926–2009), comedian
David Sarnoff (1891–1971), broadcaster and head of RCA
Fritzi Scheff (1879–1954), American actress and vocalist
Gordon Scott (1926–2007), actor
Peri Schwartz (1951-2021), artist
Gil Scott-Heron (1949–2011) American singer and musician
Ann Shoemaker (1891–1978), American actress
Richard B. Shull (1929–1999), American actor
Ivan F. Simpson (1875–1951), Scottish actor
Leo Singer (1877–1950), manager of the Singer Midgets vaudeville group
Alison Skipworth (1863–1952), English actress
Alfred Holland Smith (1863–1924), president of the New York Central Railroad
Howard Smith (1893–1968), American character actor
Mildred Joanne Smith (1921–2015), American actress and educator^[4]
Peter Moore Speer (1862–1933), U.S. Congressman
Ellsworth Milton Statler (1863–1928), American hotelier
Henry Stephenson (1871–1956), actor
Max Stern (businessman) (1898–1982), entrepreneur and philanthropist
Lewis Stone (1879–1953), actor
Oscar W. Swift (1869–1940), U.S. Congressman
Fay Templeton (1865–1939), actress
Gertrude Thanhouser (1880–1951), actress
Benjamin I. Taylor (1877–1946), U.S. Congressman
Deems Taylor (1885–1966), composer and journalist
Victoria Tolbert (1916–1997), First Lady of Liberia^[5]
Wen-Ying Tsai (1928–2013), American cybernetic sculptor
William L. Ward (1856–1933), U.S. Congressman
Charles Weidman (1901–1975), American dancer and choreographer
James E. West (1876–1948), first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America
Spencer Wishart (1889–1914), American racecar driver
William B. Williams (1923–1986), disc jockey
John North Willys (1873–1935), automobile manufacturer
Charles E. Wilson (1886–1972), president of General Electric
Francis Wilson (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
Patras Bokhari (1898-1958), Pakistani humorist writer