Who's buried in Phoenix cemeteries?

From George W.P. Hunt to the Lost Dutchman, Phoenix is the final resting place of many notable figures both in Arizona history and the nation.

The cemeteries and memorials of Phoenix tell the story of Arizona's growth from a small pioneer town to a bustling metropolis.

Who's buried across the Valley: Scottsdale | Chandler | Tempe | Mesa | Surprise | Glendale

Jeb John Rosebrook

June 11, 1935 - Aug. 31, 2018

Jeb John Rosebrook was a novelist and screenwriter. Some of his most remarkable works were the 1979 American science fiction film “The Black Hole,” produced by Walt Disney Productions, and “Junior Bonner,” the rodeo classic film. He was a longtime Arizona resident and now rests in All Saints Episcopal Church Cemetery.

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Rose P. Mofford

June 10, 1922 - Sept. 16, 2016

The final resting place of former Gov. Rose Mofford is at St. Francis Cemetery in Phoenix. It's not in her hometown of Globe, but she is within steps of her parents, John and Frances Perica, and a sister.

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Lou Grubb

1922 - Jan. 24, 2012

Lou Grubb founded Grubb Automotive, one of the largest dealerships in Phoenix. He quickly became a household name in the 1970s and '80s for his "Take Five" radio and TV commercials that showcased his soft and honest nature. The New York native founded Grubb Automotive in 1972 and grew the company into one of the largest automotive dealerships in metro Phoenix featuring automobile brands such as Buick, Chevrolet, Ford, Nissan, Toyota and others. He sold his chain in 1997 to the conglomerate AutoNation during a nationwide dealership buying spree. He is at Hansen Desert Hills Mortuary and Memorial Park.

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Bil and Thelma Keane

Oct. 5, 1922 - Nov. 8, 2011 | March 15, 1926 - May 23, 2008

Bil Keane is known for his newspaper comic "Family Circus" starring Billy, Dolly, Jeffy and P.J., sometimes set in Scottsdale. It began appearing in newspapers on Feb. 29, 1960. He and his wife, Thelma, are buried at Holy Redeemer Cemetery in north Phoenix.

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Kerry Martin

Aug. 13, 1974 - May 25, 2009

Kerry Martin was the wife of former Arizona state Treasurer, Dean Martin. Kerry was a prominent figure in Phoenix, raising money for several programs that benefited needy children, water safety and other causes. Kerry died during childbirth. Her son, Austin Michael, died days later. The Martin Family Charitable Foundation was founded in Kerry and Austin's names and promotes the education and well-being of children, mothers and families. She is at Hansen Desert Hills Mortuary and Memorial Park.

Rodney Beck

Aug. 3, 1968 - June 23, 2007

Rodney Beck was a Major League Baseball pitcher for 13 seasons, playing for the Giants, Cubs, Red Sox and Padres between 1991-2004. He played for the National League All-Star Team three times. He is at Hansen Desert Hills Mortuary and Memorial Park.

Caleb Paul Christopher

Jan. 13, 1982 - June 3, 2007

Caleb Paul Christopher was an Army soldier killed in Iraq on June 3, 2007. The National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix has thousands of veterans honored there.

Anthony David Ewing

Sept. 18, 1984 - May 28, 2007

Anthony David Ewing was an Army soldier killed in Iraq on May 28, 2007.

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Al Casey

Oct. 26, 1936 – Sept. 17, 2006

Al Casey was an American guitarist. Casey became a full-fledged member of the "Sunset Riders" during his teen years, then "Duane Eddy and the Rebels," and of his own ensemble "Al Casey Combo".

He is now buried at the Phoenix Memorial Park and Mortuary.

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Karsten Solheim

Sept. 15, 1911 – Feb. 16, 2000

A game-changer for the sport of golf, Karsten Solheim designed and manufactured the Ping Anser putter. These putters have been used to win more than 1,800 professional golf tournaments. Solheim is at Hansen Desert Hills Mortuary and Memorial Park.

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Ernest William McFarland

Oct. 9, 1894 - June 8, 1984

Ernest William McFarland, born in Oklahoma, arrived in Arizona in 1919. He served as Senate majority leader under President Truman in 1951 and 1952. As a member of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, McFarland proposed legislation to assist Native American tribes in Arizona and other Southwestern states. He also introduced or co-sponsored 43 bills to aid veterans and members of the armed forces. In 1954, McFarland defeated Pyle in the race for governor and presided over Arizona's post-war boom, eventually winning reelection. As governor, McFarland increased aid for higher education, started initiatives to improve conditions and treatment for the physically disabled and made efforts toward highway infrastructure and construction. McFarland died on June 8, 1984, and is buried in Greenwood Memorial Park in Phoenix.

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Deana Lynne Bowdoin

1956 - Jan. 7, 1978

Deana Lynne Bowdoin, was a senior at Arizona State University when she was killed in her apartment in the early morning hours of Jan. 7, 1978.

Her murderer was unknown for years until DNA evidence linked Clarence Wayne Dixon to the crime. Dixon was convicted three decades after her death. On May 11, 2022, he became the first man put to death by Arizona since the botched execution of Joseph Wood in 2014.

Deana Bowdoin's killer was a mystery. Technology ID’d Clarence Dixon, a man who had been nearby all along

Oscar Austin

Jan. 15, 1948 - Feb. 23, 1969

Oscar Austin was a Phoenix man who served in the Marines during the Vietnam War. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in sacrificing his life to save the life of a fellow Marine. His family was told that during a 3 a.m. battle, Austin was mortally wounded when he leaped out of a foxhole and jumped between another Marine and a hand grenade. Though the grenade exploded and injured Austin, he got back on his feet and blocked rifle fire to protect the Marine. In 1998, the U.S. Navy named a missile-destroyer ship after him, the USS Oscar Austin. He is buried at Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery and Mortuary.

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Gustave 'Gus' Greenbaum

Feb. 26, 1893 - Dec. 2, 1958

Gus Greenbaum was a businessman and a Chicago mobster with ties to Al Capone, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. He came to Phoenix to run what was known as the Trans-America racing wire, which used telegraph lines to transmit betting information such as track conditions, jockeys and other elements to bookies and illegal gambling parlors around the country. He is buried at the Beth Israel Cemetery in Phoenix.

Previous references: The evolution of racetracks, mob influence and Kemper Marley

George W.P. Hunt

Nov. 1, 1859 - Dec. 24, 1934

George W.P. Hunt, the first governor of Arizona, is buried in a tomb, along with his wife, her parents and sister, on a butte in Papago Park, overlooking the Phoenix Zoo. The tomb, covered with white tiles, was originally erected in 1932 as the burial place for Hunt's wife in what was a state park. The city took it over in the 1950s.

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Trinidad Escalante Swilling Shumaker

April 15, 1849 - Dec. 27, 1925

Trinidad Escalante Swilling Shumaker was the second wife of Jack Swilling, the prominent pioneer credited with naming Phoenix.

Find the marker, on Grave 8 in Section 31, north of a water faucet at St. Francis Cemetery. Phoenix's first Catholic Cemetery opened on Oct. 12, 1897.

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Isiah Mays

Feb. 16, 1858 - May 2, 1925

Isaiah Mays was a Buffalo Soldier who died at the Arizona State Hospital but was buried in an unmarked grave in the cemetery behind the hospital. Mays was born in Carters Bridge, Virginia, in 1858, earned the Medal of Honor on Feb. 19, 1890, for fighting to save an Army payroll from bandits, and died in the hospital in 1925. His grave received a Medal of Honor headstone in 2001, and in 2009, his remains were transferred to Arlington National Cemetery.

Ambrose Skinner

1826 - May 1, 1922

Born into a North Carolina town bound by slavery, Ambrose Skinner enlisted in an all-Black infantry in 1863 and fought in the Civil War. Skinner was then stationed at Fort Quitman, Texas, until 1874. There would be no government record of Skinner for the next 15 years until he filed for a military pension. He was denied. Skinner then married, and the couple had four children in Phoenix. He was eventually granted a military pension. Skinner died in 1922 and was buried in Phoenix at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park without a marker. But about 90 years later, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War secured a military headstone from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

John and Perlina Osborn

1816 - 1900 | 1821 - 1912

John Osborn and his wife, Perlina, were one of the early pioneers in the Arizona territory. His family was one of the earliest settlers of Prescott in 1854. They are at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park.

Czar James Dyer

Feb. 2, 1846 - March 28, 1903

Czar James Dyer served briefly as the mayor of Phoenix in 1899. He was a mapmaker, and his "Bird's eye view of Phoenix, Maricopa Co., Arizona" map, drawn in 1885, is contained in the Library of Congress collection.

Dyer is the only mayor whose picture is missing at Phoenix City Hall, and his gravestone at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park incorrectly lists an "A" for his middle name.

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Lindley Orme

Dec. 19, 1848 - Sep. 24, 1900

Lindley Orme, one of the earliest residents of the Valley, moved to Arizona in 1870 and served four terms as a Maricopa County sheriff, with 10 years in between his second and third terms.

He was elected Maricopa County sheriff in 1880, 1882 and 1891. He is now buried at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park.

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Clarence L. Proctor

1865 - 1900

Clarence L. Proctor was a Buffalo Soldier, a sergeant in Troop L of the 10th U.S. Cavalry during the Spanish-American War who hanged himself. He now lies in Porter Cemetery in Maricopa County.

Millard Lee Raymond

1875 - 1899

Millard Lee Raymond was a Rough Rider during the Spanish-American War. His original tombstone was incorrectly marked as Raymond Miller. He now lies in Porter Cemetery in Maricopa County.

Benjamin Joseph Franklin

March 1839 - May 19, 1898

Benjamin Joseph Franklin was born in Kentucky in 1839. Appointed Arizona's 12th territorial governor in 1896 by President Grover Cleveland, he was replaced a year later when William McKinley became president. Franklin started a law office in Phoenix after serving but died of heart trouble in 1898. He now lies in Rosedale Cemetery in Phoenix.

Scott Helm

Oct. 8, 1897

Scott Helm, a prominent Phoenix physician who stood trial on abortion charges in 1891, was the state surgeon general who died of head trauma after his horse reared and smashed his head into a pole.

He is buried at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park.

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Letitia B. Rice

Mar. 25, 1876 - May 19, 1893

Letitia B. Rice, also known as Tessie Murray and Mrs. Wright, was a prostitute who burned to death in 1893 in "The Powers," a saloon and lodging house thought to be a house of prostitution. She is at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park.

Rosson family's children

Roland Lloyd: 1 month and 7 days, Feb. 25, 1883

Infant daughter: Jan. 7, 1896

Children of the family who owned the Rosson House in Heritage Square in downtown Phoenix are buried at the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park.

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Bryan Philip Darell Duppa

Oct. 9, 1832 - Jan. 29, 1892

Bryan Philip Darell Duppa is buried at the Pioneer Cemetery. He is credited with naming both Phoenix and Tempe. Duppa was a prospector, farmer, miner and laborer. He ran a stage station on the Agua Fria River between Phoenix and Wickenburg, near the site of Sun City. "Lord Duppa," as he was called, was originally buried in the I.O.O.F Cemetery and then moved to Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery in 1921. Duppa was returned to Pioneer and Military Memorial Park on Nov. 16, 1991, to the Masons Cemetery.

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Abraham Peeples

1823 - Jan. 28, 1892

Abraham Peeples was a prospector, rancher and settler who later came to be known as Peeples Valley. His gravestone is part of the Memorial Headstone Program, which gives people the option to donate money or sponsor a gravestone for those who do not have marked graves. He is at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park.

Jacob Waltz

1808 - Oct. 25, 1891

Jacob Waltz, also known as the "Lost Dutchman," was born in Germany in 1808 and came to the United States in 1846. He worked as a miner, and in 1868 he settled 160 acres near the Salt River in what is now the East Valley. He died there in the fall of 1891, just after — so the story goes — telling his caretakers, Julia Thomas and Rhinehart Petrasch, about a fabulously rich mine in the nearby Superstition Mountains. People have been searching for it ever since. Waltz now lies in Pioneer & Military Memorial Park in Phoenix.

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King S. Woolsey

1832 - June 30, 1879

King S. Woolsey, a rancher, scout and pioneer who in 1864 engineered the slaughter of nearly 30 Apaches accused of stealing livestock. He held numerous government positions in the territorial Legislature. He opened the first skating rink in Phoenix at Woolsey and Wentworth Hall in 1878. He is at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park.

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Memorials

A memorial on the Senate Lawn on the state Capitol grounds is dedicated to children who have been murder victims. The monument contains 100 cement "stepping stones," which bare the names and dates that Arizonan children lost their lives to violence.

At the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park, there is a memorial to soldiers who fought in numerous American wars before 1914. There is also the river-rock vault, built in 1878. In 1989 it was opened and repaired. A part of the river rock can still be seen on one side of the vault. Buried in the vault are E. Loring, George V. Loring, Henrietta Towles Loring, Margaret Ann Roby Loring, Samuel V. Loring and two infants.

At the Arizona State Hospital cemetery, you can find grave marker No. 1647. All but five people of the more than 2,400 buried at the cemetery were patients at the hospital, many of whom died in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A fire in 1935 destroyed the cemetery records.

Unique grave markers

Cemeteries in Phoenix feature different types of unique markers. Many of the grave headstones in the more than 100-year-old cemetery were made out of wood instead of stone.

The Pioneer and Military Memorial Park has an ornate headstone that marks the final resting place of a child who died in 1893.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Who's buried in Phoenix cemeteries?