Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainLong Beach's oldest operating cemetery, home to 16,000 burials and one persistent legend — a deaf bride buried in her wedding gown in 1918, still seen drifting through the headstones.
1095 E Willow St, Long Beach, CA 90806
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public cemetery; free access during open hours. Annual Historical Cemetery Tour (October) requires ticket purchase — $30 day-of.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved paths through flat cemetery grounds
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1906 · Long Beach's oldest operating cemetery (est. 1906) · Union Civil War veterans section · Medal of Honor recipient Nelson W. Ward interred here · City of Long Beach public facility
Sunnyside Cemetery opened in September 1906 on Willow Street, between Orange and California Avenues in Long Beach, and quickly became the city's primary burial ground. The grounds hold the remains of over 16,000 individuals, including a dedicated section for Union Civil War veterans. Nelson W. Ward, a recipient of the Medal of Honor, is among those interred there. C.J. Walker — one of Long Beach's early mayors and the founder of Farmers and Merchants Bank — is also buried here.
The cemetery's commercial history took a significant turn in the 1990s when its private operator, Dean A. Dempsey, was convicted of embezzling more than half the cemetery's endowment fund. The resulting financial crisis threatened the maintenance and operation of the grounds. The City of Long Beach eventually assumed control, stabilizing the cemetery and restoring its operation as a public facility.
The 1921 discovery of oil beneath the adjacent Long Beach Municipal Cemetery became a nationally covered dispute when descendants of the interred contested mineral rights claims. A portion of the original cemetery grounds eventually became Forest Lawn Long Beach. Sunnyside remained in place, continuing to serve as Long Beach's oldest operating burial ground.
Sources
The most specific and sustained haunting tradition at Sunnyside involves Bessie Baxter, a young deaf woman who died on September 20, 1918, when she stepped off a streetcar returning from Los Angeles, where she had traveled to purchase her wedding dress. Unable to hear the approach of an oncoming vehicle, she was struck and killed. She died four days before she was to be married.
Bessie was buried at Sunnyside in her wedding gown. Her bridesmaids reportedly attended the funeral in the dresses they had planned to wear at the wedding.
Over the following decades, witnesses began reporting a woman in a flowing white gown moving among the headstones in the evening hours. The accounts do not describe a frightening presence; the figure is described as drifting rather than moving with intention. The Historical Society of Long Beach, which has operated an annual cemetery tour since 1997, has incorporated Bessie's story into its programming.
The cemetery also sits in a part of Long Beach with documented Tongva archaeological sites. The relationship between the cemetery's siting and any pre-existing cultural use of the land has not been the subject of published investigation, and no oral tradition connecting Tongva history to the cemetery's ghost lore has been documented in sources reviewed for this entry.
Notable Entities
Sunnyside Cemetery is open to the public during cemetery hours. The grounds hold over 16,000 burials, including a dedicated section for Civil War Union veterans. The grave of Bessie Baxter — the cemetery's most storied resident — is located within the grounds. The adjacent Long Beach Municipal Cemetery shares the 1095 / 1151 E. Willow corridor.
The Historical Society of Long Beach hosts this annual event on the last Saturday of October. Community theater actors in period costume give rotating 10-minute graveside performances representing historical figures buried in Sunnyside and Long Beach Municipal Cemeteries. The event runs 9 AM to 3 PM and covers both cemeteries. The 2026 event will be the 29th annual. Tickets are $30 at the gate; HSLB members receive a discount.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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Aerial survey · USDA NAIPGalveston, TX
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