Lives of the Dead

Michael Colbruno's "Lives of the Dead": Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Fred Maggiora (1908–1979): Oakland City Councilman investigated in weapons plot

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Outdoor Garden Mausoleum-2, Crypt 192 Tier 4 For nearly three decades, Fred Maggiora was a fixture of Oakland civic life—a blunt, athletic, ...
Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Abraham Dubois Starr (1830-1894): Contra Costa Supervisor and Flour Mill Operator

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  Abraham Dubois Starr & his flour mill Plot 14B, Lot 221 In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, when California’s economy was...
Wednesday, January 21, 2026

John Lewis Bromley (1820–1909): Mexican–American War Veteran, Pioneer, and Civic Leader

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Plot 16, Lot 64  John Lewis Bromley was a veteran of the Mexican–American War, an early California pioneer, and a respected civic figure who...
Tuesday, January 13, 2026

General John Heuston [Hewston] (1825-1900): From Millions to Misery After Killing Man With Umbrella

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Plot 2, Grave 295 There are lives that rise like mountains and fall like avalanches, and among them none was more extraordinary—or more scan...
Sunday, January 11, 2026

Obediah Summers (1845–1896): Re-Interred Black Civil War Veteran

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Obediah Summers, Sacramento Bee, 1889 Civil War Grand Army of the Republic plot Obediah Summers was born enslaved in Kentucky in 1845. When ...
Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Lady Mary Kirkham Yarde-Buller (1849-1904): Beauty, Royal Titles, and Scandal end in a Sanitarium

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Plot 6, Lot 172, Grave 3 Once the toast of San Francisco drawing rooms, Lady Mary Kirkham Yarde-Buller burned brightly, extravagantly—and at...
Tuesday, December 30, 2025

George Osbourne (1848-1916) aka George Gedge: Noted West Coast Actor; Famous as Father Serra

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George Osbourne Plot 14, Lot 224 The curtain rises on a man born for the stage—perhaps even born before the stage was ready for him. George...
Saturday, December 27, 2025

John Davis Wagenet (1892–1974) Architect with ties to Julia Morgan

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Ruth & John Wagener Plot 52D John Davis Wagenet  was an architect whose career unfolded largely out of public view, yet whose work and t...
Friday, December 26, 2025

Robert Hunter (1941–2019): Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Lyricist for the Grateful Dead

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Robert Hunter and Grateful Dead album cover Plot 11A Grave 245 Robert Hunter (1941–2019) never took the stage with the band that made him fa...

Joseph E. Baker (1847-1914): Civil War Veteran and Oakland Tribune Editorial Writer

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Plot 17, Lots 77-78 Joseph Eugene Baker was one of those men whose influence was felt daily by thousands, yet whose name rarely traveled be...
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