| Interment Location | Visited | Sequence in Graves I Have Visited |
|---|---|---|
| Minneapolis, MN | January 10, 2014 | 41st Vice President visited |
Little more than half a million popular votes separated Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey from Republican Richard Nixon in the 1968 president election, but the electoral college count was overwhelmingly in Nixon’s favor. Though defeated in the race for the White House, Humphrey — the heir to former Governor Al Smith’s title of “The Happy Warrior — continued his liberal crusade. In 1970 the people of Minnesota sent him back to the Senate, where he had served for 16 years prior to becoming Lyndon B. Johnson’s vice president in 1965. Humphrey was re-elected to the Senate one last time in 1976 and died in the middle of his term.
Hubert Humphrey was laid to rest at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The state’s governor, Rudy Perpich, was charged with appointing someone to assume Humphrey’s seat in the Senate until a special election could be orchestrated later in the year. Governor Perpich selected the late statesman’s widow, former Second Lady Muriel Buck Humphrey. Muriel Humphrey held the post for a little more than nine months before Minnesotans elected David Durenberger to serve out the rest of Hubert Humphrey’s term. Muriel Humphrey remarried in 1981, but upon her death 17 years later she was buried beside Hubert. An enlarged version of Mr. Humphrey’s signature is carved into the wall at the rear of their cemetery plot.
The footstone of former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. A rectangular walkway surrounds the burial spots that belong to him and Mrs. Humphrey, but my father and I did not see that feature because it was covered in snow and there was no need for us to clear it.
Hubert Humphrey’s final resting place will always carry special meaning for me. He was the final VP whose grave I needed to see in order to complete my quest to visit each deceased U.S. president and vice president. The triumphant moment came as dusk approached on January 10, 2014, when I was 19 years old. The lateness of the day did not make for great photography conditions, which is why most of the images on this page are from my second visit early the next afternoon, on the 11th. However, it felt wrong not to include the picture here from January 10th, when my mission reached its conclusion — albeit an impermanent one because… well, death and taxes, as they say.
Lastly, here is the best picture of me with my last VP. On this second day at Lakewood Cemetery my father and I also tracked down the graves of entertainer Tiny Tim and Pillsbury Company co-founder Charles Pillsbury.
Fast Facts
Born: May 27, 1911 in Wallace, South Dakota
Spouse: Muriel Fay Buck Humphrey Brown (m. 1936-1978)
Political Affiliation: Democratic Party
Senate Tenure: 1949-1964, 1971-1978
Vice Presidential Tenure: 1965-1969 under Lyndon B. Johnson
Congressional Gold Medal: 1979 (Posthumous)
Presidential Medal of Freedom: Posthumously Awarded by Jimmy Carter (1980)
Died: January 13, 1978 in Waverly, Minnesota
Cause of Death: Bladder Cancer
Age: 66
Interment: Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
"Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism."
- Hubert Humphrey
Sources Consulted and Further Reading
Time. “Nation: No Hemming, Hawing, or Quitting.” January 23, 1978. http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,919299,00.html.
