Marilyn Monroe



Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962)



Most of the big name celebrity gravesites that I have seen I saw at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Memorial Park in downtown Los Angeles. We started that day visiting the gravesite of John Wayne, then taking in the Nixon and Reagan Libraries. We left Reagan's Library around 4 and headed for Westwood. We arrived with little trouble. If we didn't know it was there we would of easily missed the sign to the enterance. Even looking for it we drove by it once. The driveway and the cemetery is in the mists of tall Los Angeles skyscrapers. It is a pretty small cemetery. Marilyn Monroe was the first celebrity buried in this cemetery in 1962 and then several have followed since.

Unlike my first 2 blog post John Wayne and Johnny Cash I've never really had a particular interest in Marilyn Monroe's work (other then the obvious fact that she was one of the most attractive women in history). Until recently I never had seen a Marilyn Monroe movie all the way through. I did, however, watch 'Some Like it Hot' when I returned from California. Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon both star in the movie, and Billy Wilder directed it. All 3 were buried at Westwood Memorial Park. So I made a note to self to see the movie upon my return home. I enjoyed it. It was very funny and I think I now understand a little bit more the legend of Marilyn Monroe.

She is well known for having an affair with John F. Kennedy. And like JFK she was young and good looking when she died. So her legendary icon status has far exceded her actual career accomplishments. Again like JFK.








My sister sitting at Marilyn Monroe's reading tree.

   
The story of how this cemetery became a celebrity cemetery starts at this tree. Marilyn Monroe came to this tree alot to relax and read. The reason she came to this tree was that her Aunt and her Godmother are both buried near the tree. When she died her ex husband Joe Dimaggio had her buried here since he knew she would like to be near her loved ones.







The gravesite of Marilyn Monroe

  






Hugh Hefner paid alot of money to be buried next to Marilyn Monroe.

 







Marilyn Monroe and me

   


Kind of a creepy side note, according to our volunteer tour guide, is that the guy who is interred above her spent his life savings to buy that burial plot. When he died, before his friends put his casket in the wall, they turned his body upside down. So that he would be facing Marilyn Monroe for all eternity.