Legendary jazz instrumentalist Charlie “ Bird ” Parker was just 34 when he cash in one’s chips of pneumonia in 1955 , but he compact a lot of living into those few decades . In fact , his body was so ravaged from days of drug and inebriant addiction that the medical examiner who conducted his autopsyinitially estimatedParker at 55 or 60 geezerhood honest-to-god .
To lend insult to combat injury , Parker ’s final resting situation in Kansas City , Missouri is about 1200 international mile away from where he wanted to be swallow up , accordingto his common - jurisprudence wife , Chan Parker . She said Bird want to be lay to rest in Long Island next to his daughter , who had die from a center experimental condition at the age of 2 . Parker ’s mother , however , require him home in Missouri . Ultimately , a commission of Parker ’s protagonist claimed his body at the funeral home and sent it home to his mother . Addie Parker had her Word interred at Lincoln Cemetery on the outskirts of town and was buried next to him when she died in 1967 .
But Bird ’s afterlife problems do n’t end there . His name was misspelled as " Charley " Parker in his Kansas City obituary . And the marker that designates his final resting place has beenplagued with problemssince the day it was installed . The original headstone list the wrong death engagement — March 23 rather of March 12 — and though the crying engraving error was finally fixed , the whole affair was by and by stolen in 1992 . It take two eld to get a replacement , and when it arrived , there was a new fault : The etching above the name is a strain saxophone . Parker played the countertenor .
In 1998 , there was some talk of having Parker moved from the out - of - the - way , difficult - to - determine cemetery . devotee , let in then - mayor of Kansas City Emanuel Cleaver , had a more fitting resting office in idea : 18th and Vine , a historic jazz positioning in Kansas City right where the American Jazz Museum now stands . meat cleaver even requested $ 25,000 from the City Council to help move the city ’s noted Word . “ It will be much more than a grave accent , ” he said . “ It will be a shrine . It will take up about half a block behind the museum . I think having Charlie Parker ’s grave near the museum is almost as crucial as having the home base near the acting field . ”
Unfortunately for Cleaver , the postulation was denied , and to this day , Parker remains in Lincoln Cemetery . Even so , the obscure smirch gets pretty full of life every year on Parker ’s birthday when the local wind community of interests establish up to serenade him with a New Orleans - style “ 21 Sax Salute . ”
