Inspiration for Iconic Broadway, Movie Role Is Buried in Daviess County KY

I've recently learned something new about myself. I am a taphophile, a person who has an interest in gravestones and cemeteries. Well, that affinity isn't new, but the word is (to me, anyway). I love it and will happily own it.

Famous Gravestones

I've paid many a visit to cemeteries and have taken pictures of the headstones or memorials of people like Muhammad Ali, George Jones, and Colonel Sanders, among others. One of those "others" might just be my favorite. While visiting Jamestown NY, I went to the local cemetery and captured an image of the gravestone of the one and only Lucille Desiree Ball Morton. I'm sure you know her better as Lucille Ball.

Beulah Sheriff, the Inspiration for Roxie Hart

Much closer to home, however, is a monument that marks the burial of Beulah Sheriff who passed away in 1927 at the age of 27. In 1920, she moved to Chicago with her second husband Al Annan. Soon after, Beulah Sheriff-Annan began an affair with a man named Harry Kalstedt, who was murdered. Beulah was charged.

According to Chicagology.com, Chicago Tribune reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins was covering both Sheriff-Annan's murder trial and the murder trial of Belva Gaertner. An accomplished writer, Watkins decided to write a play about these women, but chose to combine the two into one character, Roxie Hart.

From Owensboro KY to 'Chicago'

In 1975, legendary Broadway director and choreographer adapted the story into one of the most iconic musicals in theatre history, Chicago. In 2003, the film adaptation, starring Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart, won the Oscar for Best Picture.

According to multiple sources, including the Chicago History Museum, Beulah Sheriff-Annan died of tuberculosis in 1928. However, this is what it says on her headstone.

Beulah Sheriff-Annan is buried in the cemetery next to Mt. Pleasant Cumberland Presbyterian Church on Highway 81 in Daviess County.