Westwood Memorial
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
Continuing with my series of Hollywood cemeteries is the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, located in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles. For visitors wanting to get the most bang for their buck when it comes to Hollywood celebrities, one wouldn’t find a more condensed gathering of famous burials than this location. Just by casually browsing the cemetery, I was able to spot more than twenty-five famous graves in less than one hour’s time. Oddly situated in a downtown area, this small cemetery is very easy to get around. Tour groups often stop here to see its most famous grave, that of Marilyn Monroe. Read the rest of this entry »
Knowing Virginia Karns Patterson was truly one of the most unique and fulfilling experiences in my life. I had met many celebrities – mostly in the Laurel & Hardy and Our Gang realm – up to that point, but never had I carried on a true friendship with any of them. Virginia was mostly known for her role as Mother Goose in the 1934 Laurel & Hardy film Babes in Toyland. She also had supporting roles in several other Hal Roach short subjects which included Four Parts (Charley Chase series), Soup and Fish (Todd-Kelly series), and Music in Your Hair (starring Billy Gilbert and Billy Bletcher). 
We were in Miami and I had an agenda. That much you can count on for sure. I had suggested to Mom that staying in Miami for a day before we embarked on our four-day cruise was imperative. After all, I had no idea when I might get back to see the Hard Rock Cafe and other things. The Hard Rock in Miami we had picked up the night before, but we still had a full day’s adventure ahead of us on Sunday, February 6, 2011 – otherwise known as Super Bowl Sunday. 
When I first planned out the Disney World trip that I took with Erin and her kids in July, I had wanted to start out in Atlanta before moving on to Plains, Georgia. However, after we added an additional day at Disney and realized we could get started until late morning on our first Saturday, we nixed the visit to Atlanta. Then I had hoped to take my fifth and final vacation in Charleston where Erin lived, and take a side excursion up to Atlanta. But when we broke up, that fell through. But I didn’t let the Atlanta dream die… 
After Bob and I finished checking out the Mission Dolores on the morning of Tuesday, June 15, 2010, we had just two more brief stops to see a few celebrity graves before departing San Francisco and its suburbs and heading inland. Well, that and an additional quick stop at Royal Donuts for a filling ham and cheese croissant, which we got out of the way first. By the time we got to our first cemetery, it was about 10:45. Actually buried in the city of Colma at the Holy Cross Cemetery was baseball Hall of Famer, former Yankee, and once Mr. Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio. A bat that a fan had left at the site provided a ready photo prop.