13 famous people who are buried in Wisconsin
From famous architects to movie stars and rock ‘n’ roll legends, there are plenty of famous graves to pay your respects at in Wisconsin.
Choosing where you want to spend your life is an important decision that everyone has to make at some point. So is choosing where you’ll spend your afterlife. Many of Wisconsin’s famous residents have chosen to be buried throughout the state, in everything from large, historic graveyards to smaller, family burial plots.
Many of these burial sites serve as places for family, friends, and fans alike to pay their respects to the famous people buried in Wisconsin, while others are more hidden away and inaccessible to the public.
From Broadway stars and TV icons to well-known politicians (and their kids) and musicians, there are plenty of famous people who have made their eternal home in Wisconsin.
1. Frank Lloyd Wright
Born: June 8, 1867
Died: April 9, 1959
Buried: Unity Chapel Cemetery, 6596 County Highway TZ, Spring Green
Arguably one of the most famous American architects, Frank Lloyd Wright has works that can be found all over the country, as well as in Canada and Japan. A majority of the architect’s work can be found in Illinois, but it was the neighboring state of Wisconsin that Frank Lloyd Wright called home.
The architect was born in Richland Center, Wisc., and moved to Madison with his family in 1877. He attended Madison Central High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying civil engineering. Wright never graduated from the University, but received an honorary doctorate of fine arts at the age of 88. He began designing Taliesin, his Spring Green home and studio, in 1911, and when he died in 1959, was buried at the nearby Unity Chapel. Wright died at the age of 91, after undergoing an operation for abdominal pain.
After Wright’s third wife, Olgivanna, died in 1985, his remains were exhumed from the Spring Green gravesite. They were then cremated and sent to Scottsdale, Ariz., where some of the ashes were interred at Taliesin West alongside Olgivanna, and the remaining ashes were scattered over the desert. While Wright’s Wisconsin grave is empty, his cenotaph still remains.
2. Nicholas Ray
Born: Aug. 7, 1911
Died: June 16, 1979
Buried: Oak Grove Cemetery, 1407 La Crosse St., La Crosse
A widely influential filmmaker, director Nicholas Ray was born in Galesville, Wisc., in 1911, but spent most of his childhood in La Crosse. Ray graduated from La Crosse Central High School and attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse for two years before transferring to the University of Chicago. In the late ’40s, Ray moved to Hollywood and directed his first feature film, “They Live by Night.” Throughout his career, Ray would go on to direct 23 feature films, documentaries, and short films.
Ray’s most famous work is 1955’s “Rebel Without a Cause,” which he also wrote the story for. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Story for the film. In addition to his Oscar nomination, Ray was also twice nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for several of his other films.
Ray was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1977 and underwent an operation to remove a brain tumor in 1978. The director, whose birth name was Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., died of heart failure in 1979 at the age of 67. His ashes were buried alongside his mother, Lena Kienzle, in La Crosse’s Oak Grove Cemetery.
3. Eston Hemings Jefferson
Born: May 21, 1808
Died: Jan. 3, 1856
Buried: Forest Hill Cemetery, 1 Speedway Road, Madison
The son of the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, and Sally Hemings, a woman enslaved to Jefferson, Eston Hemings Jefferson was born into slavery at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. When Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, Eston and his brother, Madison, were freed in his will. Both of the brothers married and lived with their families and their mother in Charlottesville, Va.
Eston moved to Madison with his family in 1852, where he and his wife both passed and integrated into the city’s white community, and he worked as a cabinetmaker.
Jefferson died in 1856 and was buried in Madison’s Forest Hill Cemetery.
4. Lynn Fontanne
Born: Dec. 6, 1887
Died: July 10, 1983
Buried: Forest Home Cemetery, 2405 West Forest Home Ave., Milwaukee
Actress Lynn Fontanne was born in England and spent most of her working life in New York City, but falling in love with fellow actor and Wisconsin native Alfred Lunt led the Broadway star to a retirement in Genesee Depot, Wisc., an unincorporated community in Waukesha County.
Fontanne began her career in 1905, performing in “Cinderella” at the Theatre Royal in London. She performed in many plays in London’s West End over the following years, including the premiere of “The Starlight Express,” before moving to the United States to work on Broadway. She met her future husband while performing in a summer stock show in Washington D.C., and they married in 1922. Throughout her career, Fontanne received a Primetime Emmy Award, a Special Tony Award, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson. She retired from stage acting in 1960 and moved to Ten Chimneys, their Wisconsin summer home. Ten Chimneys was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2003.
After Lunt died in 1977, Fontanne continued living at Ten Chimneys until she died at the home in 1983 from pneumonia, at the age of 95. She was buried alongside her husband at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.
5. Alfred Lunt
Born: Aug. 12, 1892
Died: Aug. 3, 1977
Buried: Forest Home Cemetery, 2405 West Forest Home Ave., Milwaukee
Alfred Lunt was noted for his famous career as a stage actor in New York, but the famed performer had Wisconsin roots. Lunt was born in Milwaukee in 1892 and grew up in nearby Waukesha. He made his first professional stage appearance in Boston while attending Emerson College and made his Broadway debut in 1917 in a production of “Romance and Arabella.”
Lunt married fellow actor Lynn Fontanne in 1922, and the married couple joined the New York City-based The Theatre Guild in 1924. The Lunts acted in numerous plays together throughout their career, including “Design for Living,” written by their friend, playwright Noël Coward. Throughout his career, Lunt was nominated for an Academy Award, won two Tony Awards, received a Primetime Emmy, and was honored with a Special Tony Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented by President Lyndon Johnson alongside Fontanne. In 1958, the couple opened the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway and retired from acting in 1960. After retiring, they moved to their summer home in Genesee Depot, Wisc., Ten Chimneys.
When he died in 1977, Lunt was buried at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee’s Lincoln Village neighborhood. The cemetery and its Landmark Chapel are both on the National Register of Historic Places. Fontanne was interred next to Lunt after her 1983 death.
6. Les Paul
Born: June 9, 1915
Died: Aug. 12, 2009
Buried: Prairie Home Cemetery, 605 S. Prairie Ave., Waukesha
When it comes to guitarists, there are few names as noteworthy as Waukesha native Les Paul. In addition to being a talented guitarist in many genres, Paul was also an inventor and innovator, creating the solid-body electric guitar and pioneering the use of multitrack recording. Before he became one of the most well-known names in music history, Paul was born in Waukesha and first started performing country music in and around his hometown.
Paul has a permanent exhibit in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and is recognized by the museum as an architect of rock ‘n’ roll, as well as a key inductee into the Hall of Fame. Additionally, Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Among his many awards, Paul was given the National Medal of Arts in 2007, is the recipient of several Grammy Awards, and two of his songs are in the Grammy Hall of Fame. There is also a section of U.S. Route 18 that runs through Waukesha and was named Les Paul Parkway, to honor one of the city’s most famous residents.
The guitarist died in 2009 from pneumonia at the age of 94. He is buried in Waukesha’s Prairie Home Cemetery, next to his mother. His headstone, of course, has a giant guitar on it.
7. Dave Dudley
Born: May 3, 1928
Died: Dec. 22, 2003
Buried: Danbury Cemetery, 29939 WI-35, Danbury
Country singer Dave Dudley was specific in his themes while writing music: the musician primarily wrote about truck driving, truck drivers, and the industry as a whole. Dudley, who was born in Spencer, Wisc., in 1928, was a staple within the truck-driving country genre throughout the 1960s and ’70s.
The country singer’s best remembered hit was 1963’s “Six Days on the Road,” which made a mark on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, peaking at the second spot, as well as the Top 40, where it peaked at 32. Throughout his career, Dudley had 33 different songs on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Dudley died in 2003 at the age of 75 after a fatal heart attack. The country singer was buried in Danbury Cemetery, in the unincorporated community of Danbury, in northwestern Wisconsin.
8. Bob Uecker
Born: Jan. 26, 1934
Died: Jan. 16, 2025
Buried: Wood National Cemetery, 5000 West National Ave., Milwaukee
Bob Uecker was more than just a sports broadcaster—he was the voice of the Milwaukee Brewers through six different decades. Uecker was born and raised in Milwaukee and was a fan of the city’s minor league team, the Milwaukee Braves.
Although he’s best known as a broadcaster, that wasn’t all Uecker did. He knew the game inside and out because he was also a baseball player, first for his hometown team, the Milwaukee Braves, and later with the Philadelphia Phillies, the Atlanta Braves, and the St. Louis Cardinals, where he was part of a World Series-winning team in 1964. Uecker retired from playing at the end of the 1967 season and started broadcasting for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1971, earning the nickname “Mr. Baseball” from Johnny Carson.
Uecker died from cancer at age 90 at his Menomonee Falls home in 2025. He was buried in Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee.
9. Joseph McCarthy
Born: Nov. 14, 1908
Died: May 2, 1957
Buried: Saint Mary’s Cemetery, 2121 West Prospect Ave., Appleton
Best known for his crusade against communism throughout the 1950s, Joseph McCarthy was a United States Senator from Wisconsin, who served for 10 years, from 1947 until his death in 1957. McCarthy was born in Grand Chute, Wisc., in 1908, and grew up on the family farm where he was born. In 1930, he began attending Marquette University, eventually earning a law degree from the school and opening a law practice in Shawano, Wisc.
The senator served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, and was elected to the United States Senate in 1946, starting his term the following year. His national profile rose in 1950, when he began his crusade against communism, and produced a list of what he referred to as known communists. The period of McCarthyism in the following years, which is named for the Senator, was characterized by anti-communist suspicion and accusations of disloyalty against the United States. Public opinion of McCarthy fell during his second term in the Senate, and he was censured in 1954 for his conduct toward a committee investigating him.
McCarthy died in office in 1957, with the official cause of death being listed as hepatitis. He was given a state funeral at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and was buried in St. Mary’s Parish Cemetery in Appleton.
10. Chris Farley
Born: Feb. 15, 1964
Died: Dec. 18, 1997
Buried: Resurrection Cemetery, 2705 Regent St., Madison
Throughout its 50-year run, “Saturday Night Live” has featured 167 different cast members, but 30 years after he left the show, Wisconsin native Chris Farley remains one of the show’s most notable. The comedian and actor was born in Madison in 1964. In his youth, he attended Red Arrow Camp near Minocqua as both a camper and counselor, and Marquette University, where he studied communications and theater.
After college, Farley moved to Chicago and performed at Improv Olympic and The Second City. The comedian joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 1990, where he became one of the show’s most popular performers. In addition to his time on “Saturday Night Live,” Farley also starred in movies including “Tommy Boy,” “Airheads,” “Black Sheep,” and “Beverly Hills Ninja.”
Two years after leaving “Saturday Night Live,” Farley died from an overdose of cocaine and heroin. A funeral was held for the comedian at Madison’s Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church, and he was interred at Resurrection Cemetery.
11. Anne Baxter
Born: May 7, 1923
Died: Dec. 12, 1985
Buried: Unity Chapel Cemetery, 6596 County Highway TZ, Spring Green
Throughout Anne Baxter’s nearly 50 years in show business, the actress was awarded an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her supporting role in “The Razor’s Edge,” as well as two Laurel Awards, which are given to actors for their work in cinema. The Indiana-born actress was also nominated for an Emmy for her work in the television show “The Name of the Game,” and another Academy Award for “All About Eve.”
Born in Michigan City, Ind., Baxter, the granddaughter of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, spent most of her childhood in New York. Her career began on Broadway, but she didn’t reach tremendous success until she moved to California and began working in film.
At the age of 62, Baxter suffered a stroke and died eight days later from a brain aneurysm. While not a Wisconsin native, Baxter was still buried in the state, in her maternal family’s cemetery near her grandfather’s home and studio, Taliesin.
12. Allen Ludden
Born: Oct. 5, 1917
Died: June 9, 1981
Buried: Graceland Cemetery, Fair St., Mineral Point
Game show host Allen Ludden didn’t live in Wisconsin for a long time, but was buried near family in his birth state after he died. Ludden was born in Mineral Point, a city in Iowa County, and spent some of his early years in Janesville, Elkhorn, Waupaca, and Antigo, before his family moved to Texas.
He studied English and dramatics at the University of Texas at Austin before serving as an officer in charge of entertainment for the United States Army for five years. Ludden is best known for his TV hosting jobs, especially as the host of the game show “Password.”
Ludden died of stomach cancer in 1981, at the age of 63. He was buried in Mineral Point’s Graceland Cemetery, alongside his biological father, who died of the Spanish flu when Ludden was 1. When Ludden’s wife, actress Betty White, passed away in 2021, there were rumors that she would be buried alongside him, although her agent has said that the star would not be buried in Wisconsin.
13. Meinhardt Raabe
Born: Sept. 2, 1915
Died: April 9, 2010
Buried: Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery, W4095 County Road B, Johnson Creek
At the age of 94, Meinhardt Raabe had been the last-surviving cast member with dialogue from “The Wizard of Oz.” He was also one of the last-surviving Munchkin actors, as Raabe was best known for his role as the Munchkin coroner, who certified the death of the Wicked Witch of the East.
When he was 24 years old, Raabe was featured in the iconic 1939 film, and continued to support it throughout his life, attending conventions and receiving the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award from the International Wizard of Oz Club in 2008. Raabe wrote a memoir about his life and experience working on the film, “Memories of a Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road.” In addition to his role in “The Wizard of Oz,” Raabe was well-known for working for Oscar Mayer and traveling the country in the company’s Wienermobile.
Raabe was born in Watertown, Wisc., and attended Johnson Creek High School in Johnson Creek and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He died in 2010, at the age of 94, and is buried in the Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery in Johnson Creek.
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