Umpawaug Cemetery

Redding, Connecticut

Umpawaug Cemetery is located at 149 Umpawaug Road, opposite Diamond Hill Road, in Redding, Connecticut. There are many interesting monuments located in Umpawaug, and it is the final resting place for several veterans, actresses and artists. The earliest burials seem to date from the late 1700s. The older stones (1800s) are at the front of the cemetery; the more recent burials are up the hill at the back. Upon my last visit (June 2024), I noticed that most of the older stones are now illegible, and many newer stones are deteriorating rapidly.

Estimated number of interments, as of February 2025: at least 1537.

Photos were taken 29 April 2015, 3 May 2020, and 19 June 2024.

The entrance to Umpawaug Cemetery.

A few of the notable people interred in Umpawaug are:

Barbara Baxley

(1923 - 1990) was a prolific actress of stage and both the big and small screens. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress (Dramatic) for her performance in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's comedy Period of Adjustment. Among her numerous film credits, she appeared in Norma Rae, Nashville, A Stranger is Watching, and The Exorcist III. Baxley also guest-starred on multiple television series.

"BARBARA BAXLEY

Jan 1, 1923 - June 7, 1990

Actress

Devoted Godmother Loyal Friend

"There is measure in everything,

and so dance out the answer."

Shakespeare"

Dave Brubeck

(1920 -2012) was a jazz legend, a pianist and composer and winner of multiple awards, including the National Medal of Arts, from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a BBC Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award and Kennedy Center Honors. Brubeck's albums include Time Out (featuring the hit, "Take Five"), Bossa Nova U.S.A, and Jazz: Red Hot and Cool.

"BRUBECK

Honored and Loved by Their Family

David Warren

Dec. 6, 1920

Dec. 5, 2012

Iola Whitlock

Aug. 14, 1923

Mar. 12, 2014

Partners in Life & Music for 70 Years

"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music creep in our ears; soft stillness and the light become the touches of sweet harmony." Act V. Scene 1 - The Merchant of Venice"

Stuart Chase

(1888 - 1985) was an economist, social theorist, writer, and co-founder of Consumers' Research, a consumer protection advocacy organization. In 1917, Chase took a position with the Food Administration of the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. In this capacity he conducted investigations on waste and corruption, including an investigation into the meat-packing industry with Upton Sinclair (author of The Jungle, a wildly popular and shocking expose of the conditions at Chicago's meat-packing industry). Chase authored 35 books. His wife, Marian Tyler Chase (1896 -1989), co-authored two of his books.

Virginia Allin Coigney

(1917 -1997). Author, writer and journalist. She managed to get an exclusive interview with Dutch Schultz when she was just starting out as a reporter, she wrote scripts for radio and television, and she penned a biography of birth control pioneer, Margaret Sanger. She was also the mother of Mary Travers.

"Virginia Allin Coigney

1917 - 1997

In equal measure -

Justice

Family

Friends"

Edwin Willard Deming

(1860 - 1942), painter and sculptor. After traveling to Indian territory in Oklahoma, he decided to dedicate his career to depicting the Native Americans. His murals are featured in the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of the American Indian in New York. Kathryn Deming Branigan is his daughter (photo, below).

"Edwin Willard Deming

1860 - 1942

His beloved wife,

Therese Osterheld Deming"

(No dates given.)

"Kathryn Deming Branigan

Nov. 1, 1898

May 14, 1995"

Carmen Mathews

(1911 - 1995) was an actress of stage and screen. Her film credits include Butterfield 8, A Rage to Live, Sounder, and Rabbit, Run. She also was a regular TV's "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "The Twilight Zone", "Cannon", and "M*A*S*H". Mathews, a passionate environmentalist, made a perpetual donation of her 100-acre New Pond Farm to the Redding Land Trust, ensuring that it would retain its woods, fields, pond and marsh. In 1987, The United Nations Association of the United States of America named Mathews one of Connecticut's outstanding women.

"CARMEN MATHEWS

1911 -1995

Actress - Gardener - Giver

The voice of an angel"

Dr. Mary Margaret Erlanger

(1922 - 2022) was a veteran, journalist, women's rights advocate, and gerontologist. She served in Washington D.C. as a WAVE during World War II, coding dispatches and working for Radio Washington. After her service, she moved to New York City, where she worked as an editor for Collier's and then in the offices of CBS, where she worked with Edward R. Murrow. Erlanger settled in Redding, where, under Governor Ella Grasso, she served on the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, the Governor's Task Force on Construction Priorities, and a blue-ribbon commission investigating and ultimately reorganizing state nursing home regulations. (Information from Find A Grave.)

"Mary Arnold Erlanger

July 22, 1922

March 12, 2022"

Sarah "Sally" Tack Ryan

(1916 - 1968). Ryan was an American artist and sculptor best known for portrait-style pieces and her association with the Garman Ryan Collection. Sally Ryan's artistic career began in Canada in 1933, where she exhibited her first sculpture at the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in Toronto. The following year she went on to study with the sculptor Jean Camus in Paris, where she achieved an 'honourable mention' at the annual Salon. She exhibited work at The Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1935. In 1940, Ryan's work was included in Philadelphia's International Sculpture Exhibition, prior to her second one-woman show in New York the following autumn. Ryan used much of the inheritance she received from her grandfather to build a wide-ranging art collection alongside her life-long friend, Kathleen Garman. A number of her works are in the public collection of The New Art Gallery Walsall (England). She bequeathed her art collection to Kathleen Garman.

"SALLY RYAN

July 13, 1916

June 29, 1968

Sculptor - Painter"

Mary Travers

(1936 - 2009). Travers was one-third of the folk group, Peter, Paul and Mary. The trio were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. Their popularity soared in the 1960s with songs such as "Puff the Magic Dragon," "Leaving on a Jet Plane," and "Blowin' in the Wind".

"Mary Allin Travers

1936 - 2009

Mother

Wife

Friend

Activist

Voice of a generation that

echoes through the ages"

Edith Ives Tyler

(1914 - 1956) was the daughter of popular composer, Charles Ives (Variations on "America", Emerson Concerto, A Symphony: New England Holidays).

"Edith Ives Tyler

May 29, 1914 - June 11, 1956"

Also interred at Umpawaug Cemetery:

Albert Bigelow Paine

(1861 - 1937) was a friend and biographer of Mark Twain. He wrote numerous books in several genres, including biography, fiction, travel, and children's literature. He authored two books about Joan of Arc, which earned him the title of Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur from the French government. He was also a member of the Pulitzer Prize Committee.

Imogen Hawthorne Deming (1884 - 1947), Frederick Lees Hawthorne (1880 -1952), Henry Amelung Hawthorne (1874 - 1959), Gwendolen Hawthorne Mikkelsen (1877 -1971), and Hildegarde Hawthrone Oskison (1871 - 1952) are the grandchildren of American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne (The House of the Seven Gables, The Scarlet Letter).

Their mother, Minnie Amelung Hawthorne (1848 - 1925) is also buried in Umpawaug. (Their father, Julian Hawthorne (1846 - 1934), died in California, was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at Newport Beach.)