| Birth: | Oct. 4, 1884
Manhattan
Kansas | | Death: | Dec. 10, 1946
New York
New York | 
New York newspaper columnist, reporter, and author. He is best known today for the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fund. Runyon was a three-pack-a-day smoker and when he eventually succumbed to cancer, his friend Walter Winchell made a radio appeal for money to fight the disease. Today it funds over 150 cancer research projects each year. He was born in Manhatten, Kansas, a town founded by his pioneer grandfather. He won nationwide fame as a newspaper columnist and feature writer. He received permanent recognition in American literature from his short stores of Broadway characters; gangsters, chorus girls, gamblers, bookies and has been athletes. This collection provided the title and story line for one of the masterpieces of the American musical theatre, "Guys and Dolls". Upon his death, he was cremated and World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker carried out his wishes by scattering his ashes from an airplane over Broadway. Then the plane continued up to the Bronx and banked over the family plot at historic Woodlawn Cemetery where his wife is interred. (bio by: Paul S.)
Search Amazon for Damon Runyon | | | Burial:
Cremated, Ashes scattered. |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by: Frank Disponzio
Record added: Apr 26, 2002
Find A Grave Memorial# 6372079 |
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