Cemetery Trivia

Municipal Cemetery

(Originally Signal Hill Cemetery)

·        Founded in 1893 by Long Beach Cemetery Corporation

·        Original plot map shows “East 5 acres of Farm Lot 68 of American Colony Tract” (northwest corner of Willow Street and Orange Avenue)

·        Oldest surviving headstone is dated 1878

·        Deeded to City of Long Beach in 1901

·        Burial records were not required until 1905, so City does not know exactly how many are buried

·        Many records destroyed in 1936 fire at City Hall

·        Many headstones have been laid flat and grass allowed to grow over

·        Cemetery is managed by City Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine

·        Residents can still be buried in city cemetery

·        Famous interments:

o   William E. Willmore -- founder of area that became Long Beach

o   Michael Sherrill Julian -- Confederate veteran and founder of Julian, California

o   Abraham Cleage -- former slave and Union veteran who worked as a janitor in City Hall

o   Grace Bush Eads - first school teacher in Long Beach

Sunnyside Cemetery

·        Established in 1906 on 13 acres adjacent to Municipal Cemetery  

·        Approximately, 16,236 are buried there  

·        Cemetery has large section dedicated to Civil War veterans and has a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient buried in other section  

·        A number of prominent early settlers have large family plots  

·        Long Beach referred to as "two grave town" because more than half of population in 1920s were elderly retired couples with no other family

·        Cemetery became focus of intense legal battle in 1920s and 1930s due to oil underneath and surrounding it 

·        Angel Adams photograph of the 1907 "Angel of Sorrows" sculpture at the grave site of Dr. Albert Rhea, made this site famous in Life magazine in 1939. Adams photographed the contrast between a cemetery and the hundred of oil derricks that surrounded it  

·        Dr. Rhea, a retired deaf physician, was struck by a trolley while bicycling  

·        Over the years, ownership has changed hands many times Cemetery was taken over by state cemetery board and eventually turned over to current owners, the Sunnyside Cemetery Corporation, a non-profit organization comprised of members who have family buried in the cemetery  

·        In 2000, the City of Long Beach designated the cemetery a historic landmark   
·        The Historical Society of Long Beach hosts an annual Historical Cemetery Tour on site during the Saturday before or on Halloween

·        Famous interments:

o   Nelson W. Ward -- Civil War Medal of Honor recipient

o   C.J. Walker and Carrie Walker -- prominent banking family that established Farmers and Merchants Bank. CJ was one of the original incorporators of the Long Beach Cemetery Association

o   Jane Elizabeth Harnett -- first history teacher at Long Beach High School and local historian who first recorded Long Beach history

o   Joseph Shrewsbury -- Long Beach first fire chief

Sunnyside Memorial Park and Mausoleum 

(Forest Lawn Long Beach)

·        In  1923, the Sunnyside Memorial Park and Mausoleum was established to move burials from Sunnyside Cemetery because of the oil beneath

·        First owned and operated by Cecil E. Bryan who had built 80 other mausoleums and invented noiseless coffin elevator

·        The 38 acres contain cemetery, mausoleum, chimes, pipe and echo organ, mortuary and crematorium

·        Once was site for public concerts broadcast by KGER radio

·        A Foucault pendulum is suspended five stories and takes 42 hours and 48 minutes to make a complete revolution

·        Purchased by Forest Lawn in 1960 which made numerous repairs

·        Site renamed Forest Lawn Long Beach

·        An outdoor copy of Raphael's mosaic work in the Vatican is near mausoleum and was renamed "Paradise"

·        A Jewish section was added in 1974 - Rose of Sharon Memorial Gardens

·        Much of original decor remains, including the letters "SM" inscribed in mosaics as well as on crypt gates

·        Famous interments:

o   Earl Daugherty -- pioneer aviator and founder of Long Beach Municipal airport

o   James Hilton -- novelist and screenplay writer

o   Richard Loynes, Sr.  -- opened city's first brickyard which constructed clay pipes to transport water to first homes in Long Beach

o   Frank Merriam -- first Long Beach resident to be elected Governor of California (mid-1930s)

All Souls Catholic Cemetery

·        Originally a Rose Hills Memorial Park was slated for property in 1945

·        Residents organized and formed Bixby Highlands Property Owners to stop

·        1948 developers gave 10 acres of land for a park

·        All Souls Cemetery and Mortuary was founded in 1950 on 78 acres

·        After Catholic Church began allowing cremation in 1963, a crematorium was added

·        Famous interments:

o   Gerald Desmond -- former City Attorney and councilman and name sake of Gerald Desmond Bridge

o   Frank Zamboni -- inventor of ice resurfacing machine that revolutionized ice skating rinks

o   Bobo the Clown -- AKA Ed Ellsworth Boyle -- one of earliest burials. He appeared in clown alley for Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus