Ninth in a series

Famous black St. Louisans buried at St. Peter's

(Editor's note: This is the ninth in a series about famous St. Louisans who are buried in local cemeteries. Information is from St. Louisan Kevin Amsler's book, "Final Resting Place: The Lives and Deaths of Famous St. Louisans.")

St. Peter's Cemetery was opened in 1855 in north St. Louis on 50 acres purchased from the Lindell Estate. Now, it is over 100 acres with 70,000 graves, including those of many prominent black St. Louisans.

Two of them, John Stark and Tom Turpin, were pioneers in ragtime music. Lawyer Homer G. Phillips was the namesake of the city's first black hospital.

James (Cool Papa) Bell was a famous baseball player in the Negro League era and now in the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame.

Wendell O. Pruitt was one of the famous Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. Boxer Lemuel Steeples died in a plane crash that wiped out the U.S. Olympic boxing team.

(You can read about famous St. Louisans included in previous articles in this series. Go to the YSL.com home page and click on Past Stories and check October, 2006; November, 2006; December, 2006; January, 2007; February, 2007, March, 2007, April, 2007 and/or May 2007.

(To buy Mr. Amsler's book, visit a local bookstore or visit www.STL-Books.com.)

Among those buried in St. Peter's Cemetery were:

John Stark
(1841-1927)

John Stark was a piano and organ dealer in St. Louis before he got interested in ragtime music. Then, he became a sheet music publisher and promoter of that type of music.

In 1899, he published Scott Joplin's "The Maple Leaf Rag." That one tune sold over 500,000 copies in the next 10 years. And it was a source of income for Stark for the rest of his life.

When he stopped publishing in 1923, his catalogue was considered one of the best collections of ragtime in the country. Among the many Joplin tunes he published was "The Entertainer." That song became popular again a half-century later as the theme for the movie, "The Sting."

Tom Turpin
(1871-1922)

Tom Turpin was a café owner in St. Louis who became a composer of ragtime music. He was the first black to get an instrumental rag tune, "Harlem Rag," published in 1899.

His Rosebud Café was immortalized by Scott Joplin's ragtime tune, "Rosebud March."

His St. Peter's Cemetery gravestone is inscribed, "The Father of St. Louis Ragtime."

Albert Burgess
(1856-1932)

Albert Burgess was the first black lawyer admitted to the bar in St. Louis. He also was the first treasurer of the Mound City Bar Assn. and an assistant city attorney in 1894.

He was known as the lawyer who paved the way for other black attorneys in the city.

Homer G. Phillips
(1880-1931)

Homer G. Phillips was an attorney but is remembered now mostly as the namesake of the first hospital for blacks in St. Louis, The Homer G. Phillips Hospital.

He had been negotiating with then Mayor Henry Kiel to establish the hospital when he was shot in a dispute over an estate bill.

The hospital was started a year after his death and opened for business in 1937. The hospital was closed in 1979 but the building is being redeveloped as housing.

Allen Britt
(1881-1899)

Allen Britt's life was short. He was killed by his live-in girlfriend, Frankie Baker.

Songwriter Bill Dooley immortalized that episode in a hit song, "Frankie and Johnny." Frankie's name was used in the title but Allen's name was changed. The song is the story of the two star-crossed lovers.

James Bell
(1903-1991)

James Bell was born in the South and moved to St. Louis when he was 16.

He played semi-pro ball with the local Compton Hill Cubs before starting his career in the Negro Leagues. He played for the St. Louis Stars, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the Homestead Grays and the Kansas City Monarchs.

He batted over .400 several times. But, his trademark was speed on the base paths. He stole 175 bases in 1933.

For a time, he roomed with famed pitcher Satchel Paige. Paige once said Bell was so fast that he could turn out the light in their hotel room and be in bed before it got dark.

Bell retired from baseball in 1950 after a 29-year career.

He was the 5th black player to be inducted into the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame.

Wendell O. Pruitt
(1920-1945)

Wendell Pruitt was a Sumner High School graduate who was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen. That was an all-black flying squadron during World War II that trained at the Tuskegee (Ala.) Air Base.

He flew 70 missions in Europe. He was credited with shooting down three German planes and destroying eight more on the ground. He also assisted in sinking a Nazi destroyer.

Pruitt was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. His picture is prominent in the Tuskegee Airmen mural painting now at Lambert Field in St. Louis.

He was honored in 1944 by the City of St. Louis on "Captain Wendell O. Pruitt Day."

Lemuel Steeples
(1956-1980)

Lemuel Steeples was an up-and-coming boxer who won titles in Golden Gloves, the Pan American Games and the National AAU.

In training for the 1980 Olympics, Steeples was on a flight to Poland when his plane crashed. He was one of 14 fighters and 8 officials of the U.S. team killed in that crash.