A Visit to Holy Cross Cemetery, Part 1

The weekend before the TCM Classic Film Festival my husband and I were joined by our friends Aurora, Annmarie, and Kellee for a day of sightseeing and movies.

Our busy day included a stop for lunch at El Cholo, a visit to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum on Hollywood Boulevard, and an evening at the 18th Annual Noir City Film Festival! A report on Madame Tussauds will be posted at a future date.

For the third year in a row our itinerary included a stop at an historic Los Angeles area cemetery. This year we visited Holy Cross in Culver City, a Catholic cemetery which is the final resting place of many notable filmmakers.

The day after the TCM Festival ended, my husband and I returned to Holy Cross with Raquel and her husband Carlos; Raquel shared some of her photographs in this post.

Most of my photos shared here are from our first visit, while a couple are from our return visit. My photos from Holy Cross will be divided into three separate posts spread a few days apart.

Holy Cross is a lovely, serene place, and we all found it meaningful and moving to quietly pay our respects to actors and others who have provided us with countless special hours of entertainment.

I found myself particularly moved to visit Rita Hayworth's grave, as I associate her so strongly with becoming a lifelong classic film fan, as I wrote about in 2011.

Bing Crosby:

Ann Miller and her baby daughter Mary, who died shortly after birth:

Loretta Young and her mother:

Bonita Granville Wrather. Her husband Jack is buried next to her.

Oscar-winning actor Edmond O'Brien:

Macdonald Carey:

Frank Lovejoy and his wife, Joan Banks:

Pat O'Brien.  His wife of 52 years, Eloise, was buried next to him.

Rosalind Russell's grave is unusual as she and her husband, Carl Brisson, are buried at this large monument, a fairly rare sight on the flat cemetery grounds:

We had the help of maps during our visit, but in several areas, such as the Grotto, there are numerous notable names easily found in a small area. And although we found a significant number of burial sites, there are many more greats at Holy Cross which perhaps we'll locate on a future visit, including Joan Leslie and Ricardo Montalban.

I recently realized that last year was so busy, with both the Noir City and Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festivals following the TCM Festival, that I never posted photos from our visit to Forest Lawn Glendale, although I've used a couple of individual photos in posts. I'll have two posts on Forest Lawn Glendale following this series on Holy Cross.

Updates: A Visit to Holy Cross Cemetery - Part 2 and A Visit to Holy Cross Cemetery - Part 3.

Previously: A Visit to Hollywood Forever Cemetery; A Visit to Westwood Village Memorial Park - The Musicians; A Visit to Westwood Village Memorial Park - The Comedians; A Visit to Westwood Village Memorial Park - The Actors; A Visit to Westwood Village Memorial Park - Writers, Directors and More.