FOUND A GRAVE

Frederick Banting (1891 - 1941)

Frederick Banting was born on November 14, 1891, in a farm house near Alliston, Ontario. The youngest of five children (Nelson, Thompson, Kenneth and Essie) of William Thompson Banting and Margaret Grant, he attended public and high schools in Alliston. He attempted to enter the army but was refused due to poor eyesight. He then […]

Joseph Barbara (1905 - 1959)

Joseph Barbara Organized Crime Figure. Immigrated to the United States in 1921 at age 16. He was soon working as a hitman for the Buffalo crime family in their Northern Pennsylvania territory. During the 1930s, Joseph was arrested for several murders, including the 1933 murder of rival bootlegger Sam Wichner. Wichner had gone to Barbara’s […]

Fedora Barbieri (1920 - 2003)

Opera Singer, Actress. Born in Trieste, Italy, she was an mezzo-soprano with one of the longest careers in opera history. She made her official debut in Florence in 1940 and quickly established her reputation performing in opera houses in Europe, South America, America and Asia, until 1999. Considered a formidable actress as well as a […]

Dr. Jose Celso Barbosa (1857 - 1921)

Barbosa (birth name: José Celso Barbosa Alcala) was born in the city of Bayamón, Puerto Rico to parents of African and European ancestry. He received both his primary and secondary education in Puerto Rico. He was the first person of mixed-ethnic ancestry to attend Puerto Rico’s prestigious Jesuit Seminary. After graduating from the Seminary, Barbosa […]

Philip Pendleton Barbour (1783 - 1841)

Barbour was born near Gordonsville, Orange County, Virginia. He was named for his ancestor Philip Pendleton through whom he was related to politician and judge, Edmund Pendleton. He attended common and private schools and graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1799. A year later he was admitted to the bar, […]

Kandi Barbour (1956 - 2012)

Adult Film Star, Model. Born Linda Jean Smith, she was a major adult film actress of the 1970s and 1980s. She starred in over 40 adult films during her career, including several soft-core releases and multiple hardcore compilations. By the mid 1970s she had appeared in the pages of every major men’s magazines, in addition […]

Madeleine Barbulee (1910 - 2001)

Actress. She was born in Nancy, France. In her long career that spanned more than fifty years, she appeared in over 125 films. She began her career on stage, become a leading lady in Comédie des Enfants in the 1940s. On cinema, she is best remembered in “Rome-Express” (1949), “The Diary of Major Thompson” (1955), […]

Joan Barclay (1914 - 2002)

Actress. Born Mary Elizabeth Greear, she made her screen debut in “The Gaucho,” which starred Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Later she co-starred in several B-Westerns including: “Six-Gun Rhythm” with Tex Fletcher; and “Riding the Wind.” Also she was the heroine in serials such as “The Shadow of Chinatown” and “Blake of Scotland Yard.”

John Bardeen (1908 - 1991)

John Bardeen was born in Madison, Wisconsin on May 23, 1908.  Bardeen attended the University High School at Madison for several years, but graduated from Madison Central High School in 1923. He graduated from high school at age fifteen, even though he could have graduated several years earlier. His graduation was postponed due to taking […]

Velma Barfield (1932 - 1984)

Velma Barfield was born in rural South Carolina, but grew up near Fayetteville, North Carolina. Her father reportedly was abusive and she resented her mother who did not intervene in the beatings. She escaped by marrying Thomas Burke in 1949. The couple had two children and were reportedly happy until Barfield had a hysterectomy and […]

Lynn Bari (1913 - 1989)

Actress. She is remembered for her portray of sultry, statuesque man-killers in over 100 20th Century Fox films from the early 1930s through the 1940s. During World War II, she was a favorite American soldier’s pin-up girl with names like “The Woo Woo Girl” and “The Girl with the Million Dollar Figure.” Her film and […]

Francine Hurd Barker (1947 - 2005)

Francine Hurd Barker Born in Washington, DC, in 1947, Francine Hurd earned the childhood nickname “Peaches” because of her genteel manner. As a schoolgirl she sang in numerous groups before joining the Keynotes as lead vocalist. Later, she formed her own trio, the Darlettes, with Dyanne Stewart and Nancy J. Johnson. Their recording debut, 1965’s […]

Edward Emerson Barnard (1857 - 1923)

Barnard was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to Reuben Barnard and Elizabeth Jane Barnard (née Haywood), and had one brother. His father died three months before his birth, so he grew up in an impoverished family and did not receive much in the way of formal education. His first interest was in the field of photography, […]

Thomas John Barnardo (1845 - 1905)

Barnardo was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1845. He was the fourth of five children (one died in childbirth) of John Michaelis Barnardo, a furrier, and his second wife, Abigail, an Englishwoman and member of the Plymouth Brethren. In the early 1840s, John emigrated from Hamburg to Dublin, where he established a business; he married […]

Syrie Maugham (1879 - 1955)

Gwendoline Maud Syrie Barnardo was born in England, a daughter of Thomas John Barnardo, the founder of the Barnardo’s charity for destitute children, and his wife, the former Sarah Louise “Syrie” Elmslie.  In a career that lasted from 1922 until her death, Syrie Maugham became a legendary interior designer credited for designing the first all-white […]

Walt Barnes (1918 - 1998)

Barnes earned his nickname of “Piggy” from catching a piglet when a boy. Playing football at Parkersburg High School, he was on the unbeaten 1938 team and played in the 1939 North-South Game. Following military service in the United States Army in World War II as a Army Sergeant he enrolled in Louisiana State University […]

Max Duane Barnes (1936 - 2004)

Max Duane Barnes Max D. Barnes, the co-writer of such hits as “Chiseled in Stone,” “Look at Us” and “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes,” died early Sunday (Jan. 11) of pneumonia at Baptist Hospital in Nashville. He was 67. During his nearly 40 years as a professional writer, Barnes saw his songs recorded by George […]

Binnie Barnes (1903 - 1998)

Actress. Born in London, England, she was a versatile performer in comedies or dramas. She began appearing in short films in 1929 and made her first full length feature in “A Night in Montmartre” (1931). She remained active for over 40 years appearing in many films to include “The Private Life of Henry VIII” (1934), […]

Vince Barnett (1902 - 1977)

Vince Barnett was born July 4, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Luke Barnett, a well-known comedian who specialized in insulting and pulling practical jokes on his audiences. (Luke’s professional nickname was “Old Man Ribber” and “the King of Ribbing”.) Barnett graduated from Duquesne University Prep School and Carnegie Institute of Technology. An avid amateur […]

Pierre Brice (1929 - 2015)

Pierre Brice was born in Brest, France. When he was 19, Brice enlisted in the French Army and fought in the First Indochina War. While patrolling in Indochina, one of his team triggered a mine and its explosion sent Brice whirling through the air, but left him virtually unhurt. Later he served as a paratrooper […]

Joseph Barondess (1863 - 1928)

Joseph Barondess (July 3, 1867–June 19, 1928) was a labor leader and political figure in New York City’s Lower East Side Jewish community in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Known as the “King of the Cloakmakers”, whose union he led, he carried himself like an actor, a career he had tried but […]

Antonio Aguilar Barraza (1919 - 2007)

Aguilar was born José Pascual Antonio Aguilar Márquez Barraza in Villanueva, Zacatecas, the son of Jesús Aguilar Aguilar and Ángela Márquez Barraza Valle, both of Villanueva.  He spent his early childhood in “La Casa Grande de Tayahua”, an hacienda first built in 1596 in the town of Tayahua, about 35 km from Villanueva. Aguilar’s ancestors […]

Majel Barrett (1932 - 2008)

Actress. The wife of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the “Star Trek” science fiction television and motion picture franchise, she is best known for her roles in the franchise as “Nurse Chapel” in the original 1960s television series, and as “Lwaxana Troi” in the 1980s and 1990s series “Star Trek: Next Generation” and “Deep Space […]

Edith Barrett (1907 - 1977)

Edith Williams was a granddaughter of 19th-century American actor Lawrence Barrett.  She entered the entertainment industry at age 16 in a staging of Walter Hampden’s production of Cyrano de Bergerac. At age 19, in 1926, she appeared with Hampden in Caponsacchi. During the 1930s, she performed with Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre troupe. While appearing in […]

Mona Barrie (1909 - 1964)

Actress. She appeared in the films “Plunder Of The Sun” (1953), “The First Time” (1952), “My Dog Rusty” (1948), “Cass Timberlane” (1947), “When A Girl’s Beautiful” (1947), “The Devil’s Mask” (1946), “The Secret Of The Whistler” (1946), “Storm Over Lisbon” (1944), “One Dangerous Night” (1943), “Lady In A Jam” (1942), “Syncopation” (1942), “Down On The […]

Wendy Barrie (1912 - 1978)

British Actress. Her godfather was the Scottish novelist-playwright J.M. Barrie, in whose “Peter Pan” there was a character called Wendy. Her films include “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1939) and best remembered for her portrayal of Jane Seymour (Royal Wife no. 3) in ‘The Private Life of Henry VIII’ (1933). She was the hostess of […]

Bessie Barriscale (1884 - 1965)

Silent movie actress. Cousin of actresses Edith Taliaferro and Mabel Taliaferro, Barriscale was a major star for producer Thomas Ince in the 1910s. She co-starred with her actor/director husband Howard Hickman in several productions, and was still a star in the 1920s. In the 1930s she was usually playing somebody’s mother or maid. Mary Pickford […]

Joe Louis (1914 - 1981)

Joe Louis Professional Boxer. Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1937 to 1949. He began his pro career in 1934, and by 1936 he had beaten such great heavyweights as Stanley Poreda, Natie Brown, and Rosco Toles. He was seemingly invincible, until his meeting with Max Schmeling on June 19, 1936. Schmeling was the underdog […]

Marion Barry (1936 - 2014)

Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. (March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014) was an American politician who served as the second Mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth Mayor from 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served three tenures on the Council of the District of Columbia, […]

Andrea King (1919 - 2003)

Andrea King was born Georgette André Barry in Paris, France in 1919 to American Lovinia Belle Hart. At two months of age, she moved with her mother to the United States. She lived with her grandmother in Cleveland, Ohio, and Palm Beach, Florida, for the first four years of her life while her mother attended […]