Hattie McDaniel -GWTW's Beloved "Mammy"

Hattie McDaniel not only achieved immortality by playing Mammy in Gone With The Wind, she also won an Academy Award for her role, becoming the first African American actor to do so. When she died in 1952, she was denied her wish to be buried in California’s Hollywood Memorial Park because of the cemetery’s “whites only” policy. Instead she was buried in LA’s Rosedale Cemetery. After Tyler Cassity took over Hollywood Memorial Park in 1998—renaming it Hollywood Forever—he offered to have McDaniel’s remains disinterred from Rosedale and reburied. McDaniel’s family did not want her remains disturbed, so instead Cassity had a four foot pink and gray granite cenotaph erected in her honor. It was unveiled on October 26, 1999-- the 47^th anniversary of McDaniel’s death—in a dedication cemetery to which the public was invited.