Unusual items 12 famous figures were buried with

For every person who’s buried with flowers or a favorite photograph, there are dozens more who were buried with something completely bizarre.

Roald Dahl

One keepsake apparently wasn’t enough for Roald Dahl, as his family filled his grave with things he really enjoyed. He was buried with snooker cues and chocolate, along with Burgundy wine and pencils. But if you can believe it, that wasn’t even the weirdest thing he was buried with.

He was also buried with a power saw. Yes, really, an actual saw, it’s something that he actually requested. Dahl died on November 23, 1990, and was buried in Great Missenden, the English village where he’d lived for decades. The writer said he wanted a Viking funeral, and that involved being buried with a saw, too.

Tony Curtis

An iPhone is completely normal for us today. But back in 2010, having one was still a novelty, and being buried with one was even stranger. That’s exactly what happened to actor Tony Curtis. He had his phone placed in his casket when he was buried on October 4, 2010. 

That wasn’t all, though, as Curtis was also buried with a Stetson, an Armani scarf, driving gloves, medals, and seven packets of Splenda. It had to be specifically seven, for some reason. Curtis was just like that.

Frank Sinatra

Singer Frank Sinatra was buried with ten dimes, although there’s a real story behind those. His son was kidnapped in 1963, and Sinatra was forced to speak with the kidnappers through pay phones. Those phones required dimes. So, Sinatra began carrying ten of them everywhere.

It’s something that he continued right up until he died in May 1998, and even then, he requested that the ten coins be buried with him in California. Cigarettes and a lighter, along with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, also went in the casket.

John F. Kennedy

A whale tooth. That’s what Jacqueline Kennedy gave her husband, President John F. Kennedy, for Christmas in 1962. She paid artist Milton Delano to engrave the tooth, and he spent around 160 hours doing exactly that. He even put the presidential seal on it.

It wasn’t a completely random gift, though, because Kennedy collected scrimshaw, which is a special kind of folk art that involves engraving designs into whale bones. Jacqueline had the tooth placed inside his casket before his burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Bela Lugosi

It shouldn’t be a surprise that actor Bela Lugosi was buried with formal black clothing and a cape. He’d spent so much of his life being linked to Dracula, after all, so it was only fitting that his family dressed him as the character for his funeral. Still, it’s an odd choice.

He was buried in August 1956 wearing the outfit, although it wasn’t the original costume from the 1931 film. Despite the rumors, it was a choice made by Lugosi’s family instead of the actor himself. But they believe it’s what he would’ve wanted. 

Andy Warhol

There’s no way that someone as creative as Andy Warhol could ever have a normal funeral, honestly. His casket was being lowered into the grave in Pennsylvania when his friend, Paige Powell, dropped in a bottle of Estée Lauder’s Beautiful. Yes, perfume.

She also added a copy of that magazine that Warhol founded, titled Interview. The perfume wasn’t completely random or anything because the artist actually collected perfume bottles and wore both male and female scents. He attended an event for Beautiful shortly before his death.

Humphrey Bogart

There’s a reason why actor Humphrey Bogart was buried with a gold whistle. It’s to do with one of his most famous lines in To Have and Have Not. In the film, Lauren Bacall tells Bogart that he only has to whistle if he wants her, and in real life, he gave her a charm bracelet with a whistle on it.

Bogart died in January 1957, and Bacall placed the small, golden whistle with his remains. It’s sweet how something so small could be something so personal, especially for two people who happened to be movie stars.

David Brenner

Comedian David Brenner used a lot of dry humor onstage, so it makes sense that he was buried with something just as funny. He asked to be buried in jeans and a good shirt, as well as high-top sneakers. He requested to have no pillows inside the casket.

The weird part, however, was the fact that he asked for $100 in small bills to be tucked into his left sock. Not for any nostalgic reason or anything, but just in case tipping was expected wherever he was going. He wasn’t the kind of guy to even take death seriously.

William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs was buried with quite a few odd things. The most normal of these was a fully loaded .38-caliber revolver, known as ‘the Snubby,’ and some of the weirdest were three marijuana joints. Because, it seems, even the dead like to smoke.

The writer wore a gray suit and a red bandanna when he was buried. He died in Lawrence, Kansas, on August 2, 1997, and was later buried in his family plot at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. 

George Burns

That’s not all for the smokes, as actor and comedian George Burns was buried with three cigars, too. It kinda fits. He’d smoked them for roughly 70 years before he died, and death wasn’t going to stop him, either.

He died at the age of 100 on March 9, 1996, and he was dressed in a suit. He was buried beside Gracie Allen, his wife and longtime comedy partner. Really, it would’ve been stranger if they’d forgotten to bury Burns with his famous cigars than burying him with them.

Wild Bill Hickok

A poker game marked the tragic end of folk hero Wild Bill Hickok’s life. He died on August 2, 1876, when Jack McCall shot him from behind, but that was only the start of the story. Hickok’s friends had his rifle placed right inside the coffin. 

It’s not clear exactly what model he was buried with, as some accounts claim it was a Springfield Trapdoor, while others say a Sharps rifle. Whatever the model, we know for a fact he was buried with a rifle.

Colonel Harland Sanders

Colonel Harland Sanders still looked like Colonel Sanders. Because, well, he was. He died on December 16, 1980, and he was dressed in the full outfit. You know, the white suit and white shirt with the black string tie. It’s what he was famous for wearing in public, after all.

Sanders’ body lay in state at the Kentucky Capitol before his burial at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville four days later. He owned quite a few white suits, and he wore them so often that ordinary clothes would’ve been weird.

Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.