Following yesterday's QoD about famous births, we figured it seemed timely to run this one about famous burials.
Woodlawn Cemetery is a 40-acre plot of land located at 1500 Las Vegas Blvd N. at E. Owens Ave. and was officially placed on the National Register of Historic Places on Nov. 21, 2006. It's owned by the City of Las Vegas and is a stop on the city's Pioneer Trail, a six-mile journey linking some of the city's more significant historical sites.
Woodlawn, the oldest cemetery in Las Vegas, was established in 1914 when several prominent local women persuaded the Union Pacific Railroad to donate 10 acres of its holdings for a city cemetery. Prior to that date, the deceased had simply been laid to rest in small family plots or on public land set aside for the purpose.
As to whether anyone famous is buried there, the answer is yes: Several notable citizens and colorful characters are interred at Woodlawn. These include J.T. McWilliams, who designed the cemetery and laid out the original (pre-railroad) Las Vegas town site. Also buried there is legendary gambler Nicholas "Nick the Greek" Dandolos, the "Aristotle of the Pass Line," who died broke in Los Angeles in 1966, but was buried here. Publisher Hank Greenspan was one of the pallbearers and delivered a eulogy.
One of the more notorious residents of Woodlawn is gunslinger "Diamondfield" Jack Davis, who was sentenced to hang in Idaho for the murder of two sheepherders in 1897, but after numerous appeals and the confessions of two other men, was eventually granted a full pardon in December 1902. He subsequently moved to Nevada and made a fortune in the Tonopah mining district, but later lost it all and was killed, somewhat unromantically, when he was struck by a taxicab in Las Vegas in 1949.
Dying penniless seems to be a hallmark of the notables buried at Woodlawn. The final famous person laid to rest that we know of is Billy Delmar Guy, one of the original members of the Coasters who sang baritone on the hits "Searchin'" and "Yakety Yak" and died in Las Vegas in November 2002. Broke and estranged from his children, his body remained unclaimed for several days, because his long-term girlfriend couldn't afford to claim it. Eventually, local entertainers and friends scheduled a fundraiser so the singer wouldn't have to be buried in an unmarked pauper's grave and he was laid to rest in Woodlawn.
