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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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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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Helen Keller was a classic example of someone who became famous through someone else’s dedication to fixing a problem. Both blind and deaf, she was taught to communicate through a then revolutionary method administered by Anne Sullivan. The story was made into film in the famous “The Miracle Worker”. There is actually some speculation that the modern Lasik technology might have partially returned her sight, had she been born at a later time. As an adult, she became a social activist, with many causes to discuss, some, like the veterans organizations, were very popular, and others, like her support of pseudo communist ideals, rather unpopular. She is interred at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

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Minnie Pearl was one of the most beloved and remembered names from the Grand Ole Opry, and from country comedy in general. She won a plethora of awards, including induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Her image has been used to sell everything from snacks to cruise deals. And she is entirely fictional. The woman who invented and played the character of Minnie Pearl for over fifty years, Sara Ophelia Colley Cannon, was as different from the character as night is different from the daytime. A well educated and refined woman, not to mention an excellent tennis player, she was also a breast cancer survivor, and using the name of her character, was an outspoken advocate of that cause until the cancer returned and ultimately claimed her life. She is buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Franklin, Tennessee.

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Helen Herron Taft was the wife of the US President with the same last name. Not in such severe need of weight loss as her husband, she was much more active. She was instrumental in the removal of farm animals from the White House grounds, and was the first former first lady to pen and publish an autobiography. Her most remembered, though hardly her greatest, accomplishment was to bring the famous Oriental Cherry Trees to the White House grounds. Her death led to another first… she is the first Presidential wife to be buried alongside her husband in Arlington National Cemetery.

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Noah Webster… schoolteacher, lawyer, newspaper man. His achievements are many, including his Revolutionary War involvement, but his most famous achievement was one that people didn’t even realize was actually happening… he completely rewrote the English language. So great was his distaste for Britain that he didn’t even want to sound like them, and so, with the publication of his famous dictionary, he completely changed the sound of the language itself, giving American speech a distinctly different flavor all it’s own, and helping those of us who make a living using phrases like “term life insurance” a much easier job. Thanks, Mr. Webster!

Noah Webster is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut.

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Connie Jost was, primarily, an artist who worked in a variety of mediums, but she was a dedicated environmentalist as well. The two interests often crossed over, making for an extremely wide variety of subjects in her artwork, from huge sculptures to painted art resembling the whimsical, folksy quilt patch panels of days gone by. Her love of wildlife showed up often in her work, and she will be remembered as one of the premier artists of modern times. She died of cancer in 1998. She is buried in the Chestnut Grove Cemetery in Elmer, New Jersey.

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Stan Laurel was born to parents that managed a string of Vaudeville theaters. One of five children, he was to find the most acclaim. Half of the legendary team Laurel and Hardy, there was no one in the country that didn’t know his name. Few comic routines in memory stick out like their well done and often copied “Who’s On First” did. In 1991, he and his famous partner were even commemorated on a US postage stamp. He is buried at the Forrest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California and his plot can be found in the George Washington Section, 2nd Terrace, 910.

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Sam Walton was the founder of Wal-Mart. The original stores, a far cry from the supercenters that sell anything and everything nowadays, were founded on the idea of selling AMERICAN MADE name brands at discount prices. That thinking died with the guy, apparently, and you can now find offered for sale in these stores almost anything from anywhere. Sam Walton is buried in the Bentonville Cemetery in Benton County Arkansas.

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