Where Are They Buried? (74 page)

By the 1960s Johnny had created a musical niche that fell in a not-quite-identifiable region between the bluntness of folk, the rebelliousness of rock, and the world-weariness of country. The immensely popular artist was performing his cache of hits, including “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line,” and “Cry, Cry, Cry” to sellout crowds internationally. But as his addictions took hold, they got him uninvited from the Grand Ole Opry for smashing a number of footlights and arrested in El Paso for smuggling drugs in his guitar case until, finally, everything culminated in a desperate suicide attempt at a place called Nickajack Cave. With the help of friends, including June Carter, he conquered his addictions. On February 22, 1968, while onstage at a London concert, he proposed to June and the two were married the next week.

Of course, June herself had a successful showbiz career. As a member of the Carter Family country music team she sang, played guitar and autoharp, and imbued her own special talent into the road show too—a highlight of every show was June’s “Aunt Polly” comedy routine. As a solo artist, she’d found success with upbeat country tunes of the 1950s like “Jukebox Blues” and after attending acting classes, the willowy upstart wangled some minor roles including one on the television series
Gunsmoke
.

The celebrity couple collaborated on a succession of acclaimed duet recordings including
Jackson
and
Guitar-Pickin’ Man
. By the mid-1970s, Johnny, and especially June, retreated from the limelight and the two dove into devout Christian fundamentalism recording disposable albums chock-full of children’s music, gospel, and Christmas tunes. Nevertheless, Johnny continued to be a popular concert performer while June frequently joined him during the encore. In 1983 Johnny briefly relapsed into addiction after being administered painkillers when one of his farm-raised ostriches kicked him and caused a serious abdominal injury.

By the 1980s it was uncool to be a Johnny Cash fan as country radio favored more contemporary artists and the new generation didn’t bother trying to fathom his appeal. But in 1993 Johnny signed with American Records and a series of albums, called
American Recordings
, revived his career and brought him in touch with a younger
rock-oriented audience who soon discovered and embraced the breadth of his earlier works. Meanwhile, June released a solo album,
Press On
, in 1999 and won a Grammy for her efforts.

At 73, June died of complications after heart surgery and Johnny attended her funeral in a wheelchair looking weary and beaten. Four months later he followed June to their own heaven and the two now lie side by side at Hendersonville Memorial Gardens in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
This cemetery is on Route 31, three miles east of its intersection with Route 386.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Enter the cemetery and park in the second lot near the Chapel of Memories. Cross the drive and walk into the memorial garden. About sixty feet away, you’ll see the twin black tablets marking Johnny and June’s graves next to a bench dedicated to their memories.

SEPTEMBER 23, 1930 – JUNE 10, 2004

Ray Charles Robinson didn’t get off to a promising start; at two years old his father left to tend to his three other families, at five Ray watched his only sibling drown in a washtub, and at seven he was blinded for life by glaucoma. At a school for the blind, he
learned Braille and got formal piano lessons, but at fifteen his mother died and Ray left school.

Earning a living as a musician, the teenager played as a sideman or a solo act, taking jobs all over Florida and Georgia and calling himself Ray Charles to distinguish himself from the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. In 1947 Ray split for Seattle, formed the McSon Trio, and released his first single, “Confession Blues.” Carefully imitating the tone and inflections of urbane pianist Nat King Cole, new singles by the trio became hits on what were called the “race records” (but later became known as the R&B charts). The music was warmly received and Ray signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records in 1952. He also picked up a heroin addiction that would haunt him for the better part of two decades.

“I’ve Got a Woman” became Ray’s first national hit in 1955, and a string of bluesy, gospel-charged numbers followed. His seven-piece band was expanded to include the Raelettes, female backup singers who provided responses like a gospel choir, and they became a signature of his music. By the end of the decade, Ray had become the key architect of soul.

Despite his blindness and the heroin addiction, which ended only after a 1965 arrest in Boston, it seemed that there was nothing he couldn’t do musically. Whether in a splashy barrelhouse style or a precisely understated swing, he alternately shook the rafters and tugged at the heartstrings of audiences. His playing was inevitably overshadowed by his voice and Ray could sound suave or raw, joyful or desolate, then leap into a falsetto or slip into an intimate whisper, and finally let loose with a resonating whoop. His strong and unpredictable baritone was steeped in the blues but Ray refused to be limited by demographics and so appealed to a broad spectrum of fans. Meanwhile, as the fickle trends and movements of Motown, British rock, disco, and rap came and went over the years, he remained true. In a warm and gravelly croon, he mesmerized crowds one moment with “America the Beautiful” or “Georgia on My Mind” and then nearly swayed himself from his piano stool playing “Hit the Road Jack” the next. Claiming all of American music as his birthright, his influence will echo through generations of musicians for years to come.

Shortly before his death, Ray commented, “I got enough sense to know that I ain’t going to live forever. But I also know it’s not a question of how long I live, but of how well I live.”

Ray died at 73, due to complications of liver disease and was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From I-405, exit at La Tijera Boulevard and head east. After a half-mile turn right onto Centinella Avenue
and follow it to Florence Avenue. Turn left and the cemetery is a half-mile on the right at #720.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Enter the cemetery, turn left, and you’ll see a long stone building called the Mausoleum of the Golden West. Enter it at the Cenotaph entrance and proceed down the Sanctuary of Hope. Then turn right at the Sanctuary of Reverence, left at the Sanctuary of Dreams and right at the Sanctuary of Eternal Love. Ray is in this corridor, on the right at Crypt A-32.

SEPTEMBER 8, 1932 – MARCH 5, 1963

After her sophomore year, Virginia Hensley left high school to work the food counter at a Greyhound bus terminal and help support her dirt-poor Appalachian family. At local beer joints “Patsy” entertained as a singer in honky-tonk bands, and in 1954 the newly married Patsy Cline was invited onto the
Town and Country
radio program. The appearance led to her first single, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels,” which in turn led to a series of 1957 appearances on the
Arthur Godfrey Talent Show
.

Persuaded to drop her cowgirl attire for a more courtly cocktail dress, Patsy delivered her own heart-stopping rendition of “Walkin’ After Midnight” during her first appearance on Godfrey’s show. That performance won her a record deal, and by 1960 Patsy was a permanent member of the Grand Ole Opry. She enjoyed success with the chart-topping hit “I Fall to Pieces,” but it was “Crazy,” a song penned by Willie Nelson, that became Patsy’s signature tune. By 1962 Patsy was a certified star, having made landmark appearances in Las Vegas, Hawaii, and at Carnegie Hall.

After a March 1963 concert in Kansas City, Patsy and fellow Opry stars Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins were stranded by a storm that grounded all flights. After almost two days, the weather finally cleared, they boarded their manager’s Piper Comanche, and, after a couple hours, stopped for fuel in Dyersburg, Tennessee. But in traveling east, they’d caught up with the same front that had plagued them in Kansas City. Pilot and manager Randy Hughes was emboldened by the uneventful flight he’d just completed and, though he didn’t have his instrument-flying certification, he rounded up his passengers and took off eastward again. Caught in a thunderstorm 60 miles out, the plane plunged to earth, and all aboard were lost.

At 30, Patsy was buried at Shenandoah Memorial Park in Winchester, Virginia.

Ten years later, Patsy was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, its first female solo artist.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From I-81, take Exit 313A to Route 522 south, and the park is two miles ahead on the right.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Turn into the park at the first pair of brick pillars, then turn at the next right, toward the office. Stop after 80 feet and, on the right, you’ll see a square, concrete pad; on the left is a stone bench. Patsy’s grave is just to the left of this bench. There is also a bell tower erected in her memory at the park.

In 1996, a stone memorial with the names of those lost in the crash was installed at the accident site in Camden, Tennessee. About three miles north of town on Mt. Carmel Road is a sign directing the way to the monument.

MARCH 17, 1919 – FEBRUARY 15, 1965

As is the case of many African American musicians, Nat King Cole’s early training came through gospel singing at church and hymns learned on a piano. By sixteen, he was an up-and-comer on the Chicago jazz scene known for his versatility on the piano; outside of his father’s church, he’d never sung a note. A couple years later, in 1938, Nat landed in Los Angeles and formed the first of the Nat King Cole trios, soon becoming renowned as a swing pianist.

By 1940 the school-boyish Nat had gained confidence in his own singing, and he developed into an outright crooner; in 1944 his trio had their first major hit with “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” and, as it received heavy rotation on the radio, Nat began de-emphasizing his piano. By 1950, thanks in part to the success of his landmark recordings of “The Christmas Song” and “Mona Lisa,” his smooth vocal style eclipsed his exemplary piano talents, and Nat emerged as one of the day’s most celebrated pop artists.

Not everyone was enamored of Nat’s success, though, and the ugly issue of race confronted the crooner. A 1954 concert in Birmingham was ended early by a group of Ku Klux Klan members. Later, as Nat mulled the purchase of a beautiful Hollywood home, an uptight community committee moved to block the sale. Telling Nat they didn’t want any undesirables in the neighborhood, he famously replied, “If any move in, I’ll let you know.” Ultimately,
restrictive covenants excluding home sales to Jews and Negroes were removed by the courts.

But in 1957, consistent with the civil rights movement that had begun to roil the nation, the issue reached a boiling point when Nat launched his own television program,
The Nat King Cole Show
on NBC, the first to feature a black host. The show became one of the most popular shows of the time, but not solely for its entertainment value; too, it was a social experiment. Black viewers who were starved for positive television images flocked to the program even as the urbane and elegant Nat was cherished by white viewers. But affiliate Southern stations would not carry the show and, with the deepening racial tensions of the 1950s, it became increasingly difficult to attract corporate sponsors. After Nat outraged some white viewers by touching the arm of a white female guest, the show was cancelled in 1958.

A heavy smoker, Nat’s velvet voice and his health deteriorated rapidly in the early 1960s. At 45 he died of lung cancer. At his funeral, Jack Benny offered this epitaph: “Sometimes death is not as tragic as not knowing how to live. This man knew how to live and how to make others glad they were living.”

Nat rests at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

CEMETERY DIRECTIONS:
From Highway 2, exit at San Fernando Road and follow it 1¼ miles north to Glendale Avenue. Make a right and the cemetery entrance is on the right. Stop at the booth for a map of the cemetery’s roads, then drive to the Freedom Mausoleum.

GRAVE DIRECTIONS:
Walk in the front entrance of the Freedom Mausoleum, proceed down the hall on the right, then turn left into the Sanctuary of Heritage. On the right, along the top row, is Nat’s crypt.

In 1991, Natalie Cole won a Grammy for her album
Unforgettable With Love
, a collection in which she covered her father’s songs. Millions watched as she sang a touching duet with Nat on kinescope.

SEPTEMBER 23, 1926 – JULY 17, 1967

After apprenticeships with the likes of Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane secured his own lofty jazz throne as bandleader, composer, and improviser by the late 1950s. In the
early 1960s he skyrocketed to commercial success with the release of his signature albums
Giant Steps
and
My Favorite Things
, classics of modern jazz. By the mid-sixties, John was exploring new territories of free jazz and collective improvisation, and even introduced his interest in Eastern music to the scene.