How to Find the Lawrence Welk Gravesite in Culver City

My Memories

When I was a kid in the midwest in the 1960s, my parents and grandparents watched the weekly Lawrence Welk show, and my grandparents remembered Welk touring tiny towns in the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa, early in his career in the 20's and 30's.  He even played in the small town where I grew up, Lake View, Iowa.

By 2022, I've lived 8 miles from his gravesite for twenty years, but never dropped by.  OK, I've now checked that trip off my bucket list.  I'll show the gravesite trip first, and then some more about Welk further down.

Here is my two minute video version:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at4qlQdy2JU

Part One

How to Actually Find the Welk Grave - Details ("Idiot's Guide")

For me, the map and GPS at Find a Grave was about 100 feet off, which is a lot when you're looking for one headstone in acres of them.   Here's how to find it.

First, if you live around LA, you may be most familiar with Hillside Cemetery right on the 405, just north of the airport.  That's not it.  Holy Cross Cemetery is larger, but it is a few blocks inland, accessible only from Slauson Boulevard.  5835 West Slauson, Culver City.  (That's the easy part).

Entering the main gate on Slauson, you'll continue to drive ahead but the roads are a little confusing.   If you go to Find a Grave, there's a button for "map" and it gets you very close to the grave site, but for me, its target is about 100 feet off.  Here:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1547/lawrence-welk

https://www.google.com/maps?q=33.9941139,-118.3816605&spn=0.004205,0.005249

You'll see the large main buildings of the cemetery to your left (mausoleums, church, offices).  Every block of the cemetery has a name and a letter, so the Welk block is "Y" and "St Francis."   Every intersection has the block names written prominently down at the curbside.  

Here are two ways to get to the Welk grave, based on the map below.

(1)  Park at the main mausoleum.  Cross into the St Francis Block.  See the St. Francis Statue.  Walk from the St Francis Statue straight across the "St Francis Block."  9 rows from the next street, you'll be at the Welk grave.  

(2)  Park either at the junction of "St Francis" and "St Joseph" (top of picture) using the curb signage or near the St Patrick Curb Sign (see middle of picture).  Walk along the street and look in the first row for a RIORDAN gravesite (arrow).   Now just walk 8 or 9 rows in, straight toward the St Francis statue, and about the 9th row will be Welk.  

click to enlarge

Part Two

More About Lawrence Welk (from Wikipedia)

In round numbers, he lived from about 1900 to 1990 (specifically, 1903-1992).   

He was born in Strasburg, SD (population today, 409, in south-central South Dakota).  It was named for Germanic area of Strassburg, Ukraine, not modern Strasbourg, France (280,000).   The South Dakota area was German-speaking and Welk spoke German as his first language and main language until his teens.  Welk initially had a fourth-grade education.  

He earned money to buy an accordion, joined local bands, and formed his own band.  He had a daily radio show as early as the 1930s.  In the 1940s, his band settled in Chicago and also played in New York.  In the mid 1950s, his local Los Angeles TV show was picked up by ABC, and stayed in production at ABC through the 1960s until 1971, and made new episodes by syndication until 1982.  It survived even longer in re-runs.  He was married 61 years at his death in 1992 and his wife survived him by ten years.

He was involved in real estate including Santa Monica office buildings at 100 Wilshire and at 1299 Ocean, and also an apartment tower at 1221 Ocean.  (Stan Laurel retired nearby at 849 Ocean).

Besides Wikipedia, a one-hour Biography is on YouTube here.

Remarkable to realize the last part of his career overlapped with the Beatles and television like Sonny and Cher, let alone Vietnam and urban fires and social unrest.

Strassburg, Kutschurgan, Ukraine

Here.  Settled in 1808 by Germans from multiple areas of Germany (including Alsace and Prussia).  in 1912, population 2,200.   Settlers of Strassburg, South Dakota, must have first migrated hundreds of miles from Germany to the Ukraine, and after a few generations, picked up the tent and moved thousands of miles to South Dakota.  See the Welk family home museum page here.

Geospatial Footnote.

At the detailed map above, if you look closely, you'll notice a small, circular white arrow.  For me, that's where the Find A Grave GPS indicated the grave marker was.  I think it's 100 feet off (see yellow star instead).  Easier to find "RIORDAN" at the street, and walk 9 rows straight in.

GPS (red teardrop), Actual (blue star). 100 feet.

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See a story from Welk's biography that reads like something clipped right out of an AA meeting, https://tinyurl.com/welkaa