It isn’t easy to find Walt Disney’s grave. Given how he valued his privacy and his home life, that’s probably by design. The site is tucked away in a corner that attracts the minimum of foot traffic, atop a hill in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, a place that highly values discretion.
Ask where Judy Garland is buried in Hollywood Forever, and for $5, you’ll get a map pointing to her exact location. Ask where to find Walt Disney’s, and you will be politely handed a map of the property, but you won’t even get confirmation that he (or any other celebrity like Michael Jackson or Elizabeth Taylor) is interred there.
And yet, people visit Walt Disney’s memorial often, leaving flowers, tokens, and little Disney toys that are whisked away by the groundskeepers as quickly as they’re left. Today, December 15, is the anniversary of Walt Disney’s passing, and it will likely be the most-trafficked day of the year.
Walt Disney's memorial garden in Glendale, California
Julie Tremaine“Obviously, Disneyland is the place you go when you’re thinking of Walt and you want to honor him,” says Kristen Carr of Claremont, Calif., a Disney podcaster and creator of The Happiest Club on Earth. “Growing up, I even understood this, but as I became an adult and became more of a Disney history nerd, I definitely felt how much Disneyland really was single-handedly because of Walt and how much he loved it. It was one man pushing this magic through and making it happen.”
While Carr still goes to Disneyland, she started looking for more places around Los Angeles that were a part of Disney’s legacy. “I was looking for where I could go to be more connected to him,” she said.
Carr put together a pandemic-friendly driving tour of Disney landmarks around Los Angeles that can be seen from the car, or where you’re unlikely to find another person when you visit. On that list: Disney’s memorial site, in the Court of Freedom at Forest Lawn. It’s a small garden with a memorial plaque for him and his family, where it’s said their ashes were scattered. If you didn’t already know what you were looking for, you’d walk right past it. It’s a place she has visited many times, always with orange-pink roses that look like the famous Disneyland roses that were created just for the park.
“In a way, he feels like part of our family,” she said. “My kids grew up with it — that's all they know is going to Disneyland. And half the time we would go, we didn't even go on a single ride. It was just more being at that place. We feel very connected to it.”
For her, visiting Disney’s memorial is a way of honoring that connection without including tens of thousands of other people.
“It’s such a nice place to be able to go and just have a peaceful moment,” she said. “This man was someone else’s father and grandfather and husband… I try to honor him as if he’s a family member.”
Kerry Randal-Ospital of La Habra, Calif., has sought out Disney’s memorial site out of love for Disneyland, but also out of a fascination with finding the final resting places of notable figures. “I love finding these historic figures, these people with these stories,” she says. “It’s like finishing a puzzle to me.”
She’s visited Disney’s memorial garden many times, but she has also visited the resting places of many Disney animators, and people who are part of the Disneyland story, like the man who voiced the parrot Michael in the Enchanted Tiki Room.
A Mouseketeer hat left behind at Disney's memorial
courtesy of Kerry Randal-OspitalCarr has seen flowers and tokens left in the garden, like a figurine of Snow White, while Randal-Ospital has seen that statue wearing a pair of Mouseketeer ears. “What a fitting tribute,” she said, glad to see something Disney-themed at the inconspicuous memorial. “It’s just a little garden. You would never know he was there if people didn’t tell you where it was.”
Chad Thompson has visited Walt Disney’s memorial, but not because he grew up going to Disneyland. The Hudsonville, Mich., resident travels with his wife and three young kids to sites of historic significance. “We travel all over the country,” he says, “and every time we know that there are famous folks or people who are notable, we make an attempt to go visit their graves, and discuss who they were and what impact they had.”
When the family visited Los Angeles, a stop at Disney’s memorial was a given. “Everybody I know has been touched by Walt's work, period,” Thompson said. “There’s not a person on any corner of the Earth that doesn't know his name or what he's done.”
To him, visiting gravesites is similar to visiting historic battlefields and landmarks, which his family also does — it’s a way to educate his kids on American history, and to ensure that knowledge carries forward.
“When they get older, they can fly out to Los Angeles… and they can share the same stories that we talked about," Thompson said. "That person won't be forgotten. They will live on in individuals.”
Rather than leave things behind, Thompson does the opposite — he cleans up gravesites, especially ones that haven’t been tended to in some time, removing leaves and debris. “In my mind, leaving items to me does not honor them, even though I understand why folks do it,” he said.
When his family visited Disney’s memorial, they also visited Penny and Garry Marshall’s graves at another cemetery nearby. “I spent a good half hour cleaning everything all up,” he said. “We sat there with the kids and we played [video clips of] what they did and that type of stuff. I think remembrance of those folks is showing context, showing the shows they did and what impact they had.... instead of leaving something, I'm leaving who they are with my kids.”
“Those are the things that will live forever,” Thompson added.
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