Brooks Benedict (1896-1968)

    American actor of the silent and sound film era, Brooks Benedict was born Harold J. Mann on February 6, 1896 to Alice Julian and Samuel Mann in New York City. He attended Princeton University for two years, and was a member its football team. At the height of World War I, he worked for the American Ambulance Corp. in France for six months; upon return and after the Selective Service Act of 1917, he enlisted and served as a private in the United States Army Air Service. After the war, he went to Hollywood and pursued different jobs until his starting role in William Wellman's movie Cupid's Fireman (1923) at Fox Film Corporation. His first major role came later opposite Harold Lloyd in The Freshman/College Days (1925) as the "Campus Cad". He continued to appear with Lloyd and other prominent silent era stars in the 1920s. During World War II and throughout the 1940s, he appeared in more than 130 movies, where he was limited to utility roles in all but three. In later stages of his career, he extended his work to television, appearing as a regular in such series as the Four Star Playhouse (1956). His last performance was in the movie Houseboat (1958). He died on January 1, 1968 from a myocardial infarction after a long history of arteriosclerosis and rheumatic heart disease.

Section C
Houston National Cemetery
Houston

COORDINATES

29° 55.806, -095° 27.069

Robert Bradley Hawley (1849-1921)

    Robert Hawley, congressman, was born on October 25, 1849, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he attended public schools and the Christian Brothers' College. He moved to Galveston, Texas, in 1875 and for twenty years worked as a merchant, importer, and manufacturer. From 1889 to 1893 he was president of the board of education of the Galveston city schools. Hawley was temporary chairman of the Republican state convention in San Antonio in September 1890 and was delegate to several Republican national conventions, and was elected to serve in the Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth congresses. In 1900, after his stint in public service, he became president of the Cuban-American Sugar Company. He died in New York City on November 28, 1921, and buried in Galveston. Source

Hawley-Oakes Mausoleum
Lakeview Cemetery
Galveston

COORDINATES

29° 16.387, -094° 49.510

Walter Howard "Slim" McGrew (1899-1967)

    Slim McGrew was born on August 5, 1899 in Yoakum, a small southeastern Texas town. He was recruited by the Washington Senators as a pitcher in 1922, and made his professional debut on April 18th later that same year. An imposing figure on the mound, the 6 ft 7½ inch McGrew held the record for tallest baseball player of the era. In 1924, he was sent down to the Memphis Chickasaws, the Senators' farm league team, where he went 15-5 with a 2.84 ERA. He played his last professional game on June 8, 1924 for the Senators, ending a 30 inning, three year career. McGrew was released from the team shortly afterward. He passed away in Houston on August 21, 1967 at the age of 68.

Section 9
Rosewood Cemetery
Humble

COORDINATES

29° 57.631, -095° 16.095

Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945)

    Willie Johnson, known as the "Sightless Visionary" and bluesman and virtuoso of the "bottleneck" or slide guitar, was born near Brenham, Texas, on January 22, 1897 (according to his death certificate). He was the son of Willie and Mary (Fields) Johnson. The family moved to Marlin when he was a small child. Reportedly his mother died, and his father remarried. According to one legend, young Johnson was blinded when his stepmother threw lye at his father and some of it got in Willie’s eyes. Johnson had aspirations to be a preacher. His father made for him a cigar box guitar, and he taught himself to play. He performed at Baptist Association meetings and churches around Marlin and nearby Hearne, Texas. At some point Johnson moved to Dallas. He may have married Willie B. Harris, though no marriage certificate has been found. They had one daughter. Willie B. Harris sang accompaniment with Johnson on some of his recordings for Columbia Records between 1927 and 1930. A second woman, Angeline (listed as Anna in the 1920 census), sister of blues guitarist L. C. "Good Rockin’" Robinson, claimed to have married Johnson in 1927. According to Johnson’s daughter, her father lived with the family in Marlin, Texas, until the late 1930s. Eventually he settled in Beaumont.

    Blind Willie made his professional debut as a gospel artist. It total, he made thirty recordings for Columbia during four sessions. He was known to his followers as a performer "capable of making religious songs sound like the blues" and of endowing his secular songs with "religious feeling." Johnson's unique voice and his original compositions influenced musicians throughout the South, especially Texas bluesmen. He sang in a "rasping false bass," and played bottleneck guitar with "uncanny left handed strength, accuracy and agility." So forceful was his voice that legend has it he was once arrested for inciting a riot simply by standing in front of the New Orleans Customs House singing If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down, a chant-and-response number that stimulated great audience enthusiasm. Johnson's celebrity career ended with the Great Depression, after which he continued to perform as a street singer but did no further recording. A 1944 Beaumont city directory listed him as operating the House of Prayer in that city.

    He died in Beaumont on September 18, 1945, and was buried in Blanchette Cemetery in that city. Anna Johnson was listed as his widow in a 1947 Beaumont directory. Johnson left behind a legacy of musical masterpieces, some of which have been rerecorded on Yazoo Records. His work includes such classics as Nobody's Fault but Mine, God Don't Never Change, Mother's Children Have a Hard Time, Bye and Bye I'm Going to See the King, God Moves on the Water, Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed, and I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole. His recording Dark was the Night (Cold was the Ground) was among the musical selections placed on board Voyager 1 in 1977 as a representative sampling of music on Earth. Johnson’s recordings were released by Sony/Legacy in 1993 on a double CD titled Complete Blind Willie Johnson. A Texas Historical Marker honoring Johnson was dedicated at Pilgrim’s Rest Baptist Church (the site of Johnson’s residence and House of Prayer during the 1940s) on December 15, 2010. Johnson was also recognized as a music legend in the Museum of the Gulf Coast’s Music Hall of Fame in Port Arthur. Source

Note: This is a cenotaph. Although Willie Johnson is known to be buried in this cemetery, the exact location has been lost over time due to neglectful record keeping.


Blanchette Cemetery
Beaumont

COORDINATES

30° 03.062, -094° 06.206