A group of local businessmen formed the Inglewood Park Cemetery Association in 1905 in order to develop a new burial ground on land at the northeast corner of Manchester Boulevard and Prairie Avenue.
Though the Inglewood settlement had been in existence since the 1880s, Inglewood wasn’t incorporated officially until Feb. 8, 1908.
That was two years after the first person was interred at the Inglewood Park Cemetery on July 20, 1906. A total of 32 people were buried there in its first year of operation.
The site was right on the Inglewood spur of the Pacific Electric Red Car line to Redondo Beach, and, in fact, the railroad even had specially designed cars, such as the Descanso, dedicated to bringing mourners and visitors to the cemetery.
At that time, the cemetery was not part of the incorporated city of Inglewood, but was situated on Los Angeles County land between Florence Avenue and Manchester Boulevard on the north and south, and West Boulevard and Prairie Avenue on the east and west.
It would remain that way for several decades, especially after the city of Inglewood passed an ordinance banning cemeteries within its city limits on Jan. 15, 1912.
Inglewood Park Cemetery became the first cemetery in California to build a community mausoleum when it constructed the Inglewood Mausoleum in 1913. The above-ground structure houses many of the area’s original settlers, as well as many Civil War veterans. It was the first of many mausoleums erected at the cemetery over the years.
Controversy erupted in 1936 when it was discovered that part of the cemetery on its West Boulevard boundary actually was within Inglewood’s city limits, and that several bodies had been buried there in violation of the 1912 ordinance.
The city settled the matter by agreeing in 1937 to amend the ordinance after the cemetery agreed to pay $20,000.
When the cemetery’s internal water sources began to dry up in the 1950s, its leaders began to press Inglewood to consider annexation of the property so that it could use the city’s water. A formal request was made of the City Council on Oct. 21, 1958, and the cemetery finally was annexed to the city early in 1959.
On Dec. 8, 1972, the cemetery made news when AFL Service Employees International Union Local 399 called a strike of gravediggers and maintenance personnel. The union accused Inglewood Park Cemetery of unfair labor practices in what was the first gravediggers strike on record in Southern California.
Cemetery officials insisted that bodies had not been piling up and were being taken care of during the walkout, which cooled off when most of the 45 striking gravediggers returned to work in January 1973. By mid-April, the strike was over.
The cemetery expanded in 1988 after Inglewood voters approved a zoning change that overruled a 1962 decision banning any further cemeteries in the city. Proposition AA passed overwhelmingly, allowing Inglewood Park’s operators to purchase the adjacent 10-acre Children’s Baptist Home and use the location for offices and more burial sites.
In 1994, Vortex Energy and Minerals refloated an old proposal to drill for oil on land in the eastern portion of the cemetery, but the plan died after stiff opposition from local residents.
In 1995, Inglewood Park Cemetery began recycling its green waste. At the time, the cemetery was collecting 30 to 60 tons of green waste every month, and the recycling program, similar to one begun at Green Hills Memorial Park in San Pedro, saved the cemetery more than $10,000 a year in waste management costs.
The 340-acre cemetery has interred more than 73,000 people since its founding. Though other cemeteries may receive more recognition for their famous denizens, Inglewood Park Cemetery has more than its share of renowned interrees.
Here’s just a partial list:
Edgar and Frances Bergen
Ed Cassidy (Western star)
Norman Chaplin (son of Charlie who died at three days old)
Ray “Crash” Corrigan
Donald Haines (“Speck” of “The Little Rascals”)
Allan “Rocky” Lane (Western star)
Gypsy Rose Lee
William Thomas aka “Buckwheat” from “The Little Rascals”
Fletcher Bowron (former L.A. mayor)
Tom Bradley (former police chief and L.A. Mayor)
Julian Dixon (former congressman)
Cecil King (former congressman)
Frank Shaw (former L.A. mayor)
Charles Wilson (former congressman)
Jewel Akens (“The Birds and the Bees” singer)
Jheryl Busby (Motown executive)
Rev. James Cleveland
Pee Wee Crayton
Clarence T. Dixon
Cornelius Gunter (Coasters)
Leon J. Peels (lead singer of vocal group the Blue Jays)
La Tasha Rogers, aka rapper M.C. Trouble
Kenny Sinclair (The Six Teens)
Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton
Earl Battey (1960s Minnesota Twins catcher)
Ricky Bell (USC/Tampa Bay running back)
Wally Berger (1930s baseball Hall of Fame outfielder)
“Wahoo” Sam Crawford (baseball Hall of Fame outfielder from early 1900s)
Jim Jeffries (boxer)
Louis Meyer (race car driver)
John Parsons (race car driver)
Sugar Ray Robinson
Tommy Ryan (boxer)
Caesar Cardini (restaurateur credited with inventing the Caesar Salad)
Members of the Flying Codonas trapeze artists
Tony Carnero (gambler who ran the Rex offshore gambling ships in the 1930s)
Ken Jones (local news anchorman)
Paul Revere Williams (architect)
Note: Visit the Find A Grave website for a fuller list:
Daily Breeze files.
Find a Grave website, www.findagrave.com.
Los Angeles Times files.