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Case file s210 · Literature and art · 1959
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1959
Frank Lloyd Wright: Frank Lloyd Wright portrait
Frank Lloyd Wright. New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Al Ravenna. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
9 April 1959
Place
Phoenix, Arizona · United States
Field
architect · Visual art and architecture on the timeline
Legal tradition
US state law (Wisconsin, Arizona) · Common law
Historical event
1985 Wisconsin legislature protest over the removal
Religion
Frank Lloyd Wright: Protestant and Anglican (recorded as Unitarianism on Wikidata; American Unitarians on Wikipedia)
Member of
American Academy of Arts and Letters (Wikidata)
Literature and artBodies, bones and burialsPostwarNorth AmericaUnited States

Frank Lloyd Wright's grave in Wisconsin was emptied 26 years after his burial, and his body was cremated for Arizona

Wright was buried in Wisconsin, near Taliesin, his home and school at Spring Green, beside members of his family. His third wife, Olgivanna, led the Taliesin Fellowship after his death. She died in Scottsdale, Arizona, on 1 March 1985. According to The Independent, her dying wish was for their ashes to be combined and placed at Taliesin West, the Arizona campus. In March 1985 Wright's Wisconsin grave was opened and his remains were removed. The exhumation papers were signed by their daughter Iovanna. Sources differ on whether the body was cremated in Madison or Milwaukee. The ashes were mixed with Olgivanna's and placed in the wall of a memorial garden at Taliesin West; one account says the urn sat in a vault there for more than two years while the garden was built. Wright's son David called it "grave-robbing." Wisconsin's legislators unanimously passed a resolution protesting the exhumation and asking for the ashes to be returned. They were not. In 2026 the Wisconsin grave still carries Wright's name and is empty.

What the law took from it

A burial wish that is not written down belongs to whoever controls the body later, including a widow 26 years on.

Sources
  1. arabnews.pkPress
  2. arizonahighways.comPress
  3. The New York TimesPress
  4. findagrave.comPress
  5. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Frank Lloyd Wright's grave in Wisconsin was emptied 26 years after his burial, and his body was cremated for Arizona,” story s210, https://www.celebrity.estate/frank-lloyd-wright-1959, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Literature and artBodies, bones and burialsPostwarNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States