26 Famous People Buried in Cincinnati Cemeteries

Dr. Henry Heimlich

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
You know his name, whether or not you know his story. This medical researcher and thoracic surgeon is credited with inventing the Heimlich Maneuver. He first explained the maneuver in 1974, and since then it’s saved an estimated 100,000 lives in the U.S. alone. If you’ve ever relied on Heimlich’s technique to reverse choking and want to pay your gratitude and respects, head to Spring Grove Cemetery. He’s buried in Section 143-B, Lot 60.

Rudolph Wurlitzer

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
Rudolph Wurlitzer was a German immigrant and a true hustler. He started out in 1853 by reselling string, woodwind and brass instruments that he imported from Germany. By 1880, the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company was manufacturing pianos and soon moved on to make band organs, orchestrions, player pianos and towering pipe organs. You can sing your praises for the Wurlitzer organ by visiting Rudolph himself at Section 80, Lot 24, Space 2 in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Alphonso Taft

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
Father of William Howard Taft and founder of the Taft political dynasty, Alphonso Taft was an influential political figure. He served as the attorney general and secretary of war under President Ulysses S. Grant. Locally he was known as the judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati from 1866 to 1872, and as the first president of the Cincinnati Bar Association. He is buried in Section 52, Lot 114 at Spring Grove.

Levi Coffin

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
Also known as the "President of the Underground Railroad," Levi Coffin was an American Quaker and abolitionist who helped an estimated 3,000 fugitive slaves. Coffin and his wife Catherine started housing fugitive slaves in their Indiana home in 1826. They moved their efforts to Cincinnati in 1847, while running a warehouse that sold free (non-slave) labor goods. Mr. and Mrs. Coffin were seen as fearless activists who inspired others to contribute to abolitionist efforts. Coffin died in 1877 and was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery at an unmarked grave. In 1902, a group of African Americans erected a 6-foot tall memorial at his gravesite. You can find it at Garden LN, Section 101, Lot 343, Space 25.

Joseph Hooker

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
This American Civil War general is known primarily for his defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville. This defeat cleared the way for Lee and his Confederate Soldiers to travel north to Gettysburg. Despite this, Hooker’s military career continued, eventually taking him to Cincinnati, where he was buried after dying on Halloween 1879. His grave is in Spring Grove at Section 30, Lot A.

Bernard Kroger Sr.

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
This native Cincinnatian founded the Kroger chain of grocery stores. But he is responsible for more than just Woohoo! deals. Kroger Sr. brought some innovative ideas to the supermarket game, like in-store bakeries and in-store butcheries. He’s also said to have been the first to offer self-service shopping, where shoppers could pick what they wanted themselves, versus asking an employee to collect, weigh, and price everything they needed. Imagine waiting in line to get a quote on your Oreos. Uh, no thanks! Bernard Kroger Sr. is buried in Spring Grove at Garden LN Section 111, Lot 15 space 5.

James Gamble

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
James Gamble is an Irish-American soapmaker who went on to co-found Procter & Gamble in 1837. He and his family came to America in 1819, and were on their way to Illinois via the Ohio River when Gamble fell sick. The family ended up setting up shop in Cincinnati, where Gamble met his future business partner, William Procter, through his sister-in-law. He is buried at Garden LN, section 13, lot 6, space 3 in Spring Grove Cemetery.

William Procter

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
William Procter was the other half of Procter & Gamble. This English-born candlemaker immigrated to America in 1830, and began making candles in New York City. His plans to move west were cut short when his first wife died en route to Cincinnati. Procter settled in the Queen City and married Olivia Norris, whose sister was married to James Gamble. Procter is interred in Spring Grove, at Garden LN, section 47, lot 76, space 14.

Powel Crosley Jr.

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
This Cincinnati native kept plenty busy. He was an inventor, a trailblazer in radio broadcasting, and the owner of the Reds when they won the World Series in 1940. He ran companies that manufactured automobiles and radios, and started the WLW station. The Reds home field from 1912–1970, Crosley Field, was named after him, and the Great American Ball Park has an entrance named after him, too. Visit Crosley Jr.’s grave at Spring Grove, Garden LN, section 117, lot 6, space 8.

Bob Braun Sr.

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
Between 1967 and 1984, many Midwesterners loved tuning in to the The Bob Braun Show. The 90-minute live telecasts received high ratings, and hosted special guests, live bands and singers. Guests included Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Johnny Carson, Dick Clark, Ronald Reagan and a young George Clooney who gave viewers the low-down on his recent tonsillectomy. The charming host, television and radio personality, Robert E. Braun, is interred at Spring Grove, Garden LN, section 141F, lot 283, space 1.

Waite Charles Hoyt

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
Waite Charles Hoyt is one of many Major League Baseball players interred at Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery. Hoyt’s career spanned across seven different teams from 1918–1938. He was among the most famous pitchers in the 1920s, pitching for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Hoyte also worked as a funeral director, performed in vaudeville and got into broadcasting where he did the play-by-plays for the Cincinnati Reds for 24 years. Find his grave at Garden LN, section 103, lot 86, space 1 at Spring Grove Cemetery.

Marge Schott

Gate of Heaven Cemetery, 11000 Montgomery Rd., Montgomery
The second woman to own a North American Major League Baseball team without inheriting it, Marge Schott was the managing general partner, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Reds from 1984 to 1999. She garnered regular criticism for allegedly letting her dogs, two St. Bernards named Schottzie and Schottzie 02, roam around Riverfront Stadium whenever they pleased. But this controversy pales in comparison to the blatant racism which she continuously displayed and which ultimately forced her retirement. Her grave is at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Montgomery, section 1, lot 49, grave 32. You know, just in case you want to take your St. Bernards somewhere special to do their business.

Skip Prosser

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
Prosser was a college basketball coach who started his career as assistant coach at Xavier University for the 1985-86 season. He went on to make history as the only coach in the NCAA to get three different teams to the NCAA tournament in his first years as their coach. Prosser was the head men's basketball coach at Wake Forest University when he passed away suddenly in 2007. He was interred at Spring Grove, Garden LN, section 133F, lot 282, space 2.

Salmon Portland Chase

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
Salmon Portland Chase was the sixth chief justice of the United States, the 23rd governor of Ohio, a representative for Ohio in the United States Senate, and the 25th United States Secretary of the Treasury. He is one of the only politicians who served in all three branches of the American government. In 1830, Chase started a legal practice in Cincinnati, where he frequently defended fugitive slaves and fellow abolitionists in court. This earned him the nickname “Attorney General for Fugitive Slaves.” Fine Chase’s grave at Spring Grove, Section 30, Lot 10.

Godfrey N. Frankenstein

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
Sign painter turned landscapist Godfrey N. Frankenstein was a German immigrant known for his paintings of Niagara Falls. In 1831, Frankenstein’s family left the Darmstadt, Germany area to settle in Cincinnati. Two years later, at age 13, he opened his own sign painting business. At 19, he opened a portrait studio and exhibited some of his landscape work at the art academy. Everyone in the Frankenstein family was a painter. Godfrey’s older brother John painted a portrait of Godfrey hard at work on one of his pieces. That portrait is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Godfrey’s remains, on the other hand, are at Spring Grove, section 16, lot 117.

Hilda Freundlich Rothschild

Hillside Chapel, 525 Martin Luther King Dr. W., Clifton
Without Hilda Rothschild, there might not have been Montessori schools in Cincinnati. While studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, Rothschild was also a student of Maria Montessori. In 1941, Rothschild immigrated to Cincinnati, and founded the first first pre-school for physically handicapped children. She then went on to develop the Xavier Montessori Teacher Education Program, America's first Montessori graduate program. Hilda Rothschild’s memorial is at Hillside Chapel Crematory and Columbarium.

Dwight Hamilton Baldwin

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
Back in the 1860s, if you lived in the Midwest and needed a piano, you came to Dwight Hamilton Baldwin. Baldwin opened his Cincinnati music store in 1862, after working as a reed organ and violin instructor in his hometown of Erie County, Pennsylvania. In 1891, he collaborated with inventor John Warren Macy to create the first Baldwin Piano. Baldwin pianos have been the go-to brand for many famous musicians and composers, including John Williams, Philip Glass, Igor Stravinsky, Billy Joel and Paul Shaffer on the Late Show with David Letterman. Dwight Hamilton Baldwin is entombed at Spring Grove Cemetery, Garden LN, section 86, lot 137, space 1.

Bill Nimmo Jr.

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
One of Cincinnati’s pioneers in television and radio, Bill Nimmo Jr. was known primarily for being Johnny Caron’s announcer on shows Do You Trust Your Wife? and Who Do You Trust? His career as a television announcer included work on The Jackie Gleason Show, This Is Show Business, and The Regis Philbin Show. Locally, Nimmo soothed Cincinnatians with his unique baritone voice on WLW (former building shown above) and WMKV. Bill Nimmo is buried at Spring Grove, Garden LN, section 133F, lot 241, space 2C85.

Emma Lucy Braun

Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village
Emma Lucy Braun was an environmentalist ahead of her time. A prominent botanist and ecologist, Braun taught at the University of Cincinnati, and authored four books and 180 articles in her lifetime. Her most celebrated work, Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America, came out in 1950, the same year she was elected as the first female president of the Ecological Society of America. She has had four plants and one lichen named after her. A portion of her herbarium, which held over 11,891 specimens, is now at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Visit Emma Braun’s grave at Spring Grove, Garden LN, section 101, lot 280, space 8.

Powhatan Beaty

Union Baptist Cemetery, 4933 Cleves Warsaw Pike, Price Hill
Powhatan Beaty was a Medal of Honor recipient with a passion for acting. Born into slavery in Richmond, Virginia in 1837, Beaty gained his freedom on an unknown date, and moved to Ohio in 1849. He attended school in Cincinnati, and developed a taste for theater and performance. In 1863, his acting career was put on hold when he enlisted in the Union Army, where he won the Medal of Honor for taking command of his company after all officers were killed or wounded in battle. In his postbellum life, Beaty served as an Ohio state legislator, an assistant U.S. District Attorney for southern Ohio, and an elocutionist among the Black community in Cincinnati. He also returned to acting, which led him to collaborations with actress Henrietta Vinton Davis and a sold-out performance at Ford's Opera House in D.C. Beaty is buried at Union Baptist Cemetery, section 4.