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Alma Rubens was a movie star, considered to be extremely glamorous, and was the adored idol of the acne and bobby socks set. Leading lady to Douglas Fairbanks Sr., she was indeed a star. Her grand image came crashing down around her, along with her career, and her life. She died of complications from drug addiction, forever dulling the glamour that was her image. She is buried in the Ararat Cemetery in Fresno, California.

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Queen Victoria Jackson Haley was born a slave. She was married to a local ferry operator after the civil war, and was the grandmother of renowned author Alex Haley. The story of her life was the basis for one of his novels, “Queen”, which has also been made into a miniseries. It is said that her first name occasionally gave her problems… well, think about it. These days, if you anounce that you are a queen, someone is bound to suggest introducing you to Orovo detox. She is also featured in the miniseries “Roots: The Next Generations”. Queen Haley is buried in the Savannah Cemetery in Savannah, Tennessee.

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One of the most mistold stories in American History is that of the legendary Sacajawea, a native Shoshone. At age twelve, when modern almost teens are hunting for acne scars cream and just beginning to think about dating, Sacajawea was kidnapped by an enemy raiding party, then sold as a slave to a Frenchman. He claimed her as his wife, and BOTH of them, not just the young indian girl, were hired by the Lewis and Clark expedition as guides. In spite of what is usually told, the young indian girl’s primary duties involved gathering roots and berries, for food and medication. When she gave birth to her first child on the trail, the party didn’t even slow down… she strapped the child to her back and carried on, as expected. No one is exactly sure what happened to her husband, but he did disappear. And as for Sacajawea, legend states that she died of a white man’s disease at the ripe old age of twenty four or five, around the time of her husband’s disappearance. MUCH more credible evidence says that she ACTUALLY lived to be around a hundred years old, passing away on an indian reservation sometime around 1877. Because no one really knows what version is true, there is no way to locate a gravesite.

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George Lea was not only regionally famous in his time, he also became well known overseas for his abilities in training and fighting gaming roosters. Not exactly your Ping Golf kinda guy, he was reported to have been happiest when with his birds. He was a slave at birth, but managed to earn his freedom through his profession. Better known by his nickname, “Chicken George”, he is featured heavily in the award winning novel by Alex Haley, “Roots”. Chicken George is buried in the cemetery at Henning, Tennessee.

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Alex Haley was the author of, among other things, the incredible phenominon that swept the country in the seventies… the television miniseries, ROOTS. The original series was followed soon after with a second series, which brought the entire story to the attention of the country, and lit a fire under a lot of people who had previously had no interest in their ancestry. Roots was a book first, of course. I should probably warn my readers that, because I just watched both miniseries with my children, there is an extreme possibility that there will be a lot more on here about the people it involved… which is considerable. There were people in that book who did almost everything… Coast Guard, blacksmithing, laundry, maybe even one who handled auto insurance quotes online. Alex Haley is buried in the cemetery in his hometown of Henning, Tennessee.

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Mae West was a far renowned, buxom entertainer, from a time well before models starved themselves to get a job and Twiggy made Ms. Average run for the fad diets and fat burners. A true legend, her career spanned several decades. Her signature line, “Come up and see me sometime”, couldn’t have been delivered by anyone else… everyone associated it with her and her alone. She is buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

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Ike Wister Turner was a Grammy winning blues musician, but unfortunately, this was not his most prominent claim to fame. Most Americans know who Ike Turner was mostly because, for a short while,magazines in little baskets next to tv stands all across the country boasted headlines that screamed about the abuse he heaped on his then-wife, singer Tina Turner. He died of a cocaine overdose and was creamated. The location of his ashes appears to be a family secret.

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