Listen Live
K97.5 Featured Video
CLOSE

Celebrities Who Have Buried a Child  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com

1. Kristoff St. James

Kristoff St. James

24-year-old Julian killed himself while getting treatment at La Casa Mental Health Hospital in Long Beach. He was found dead in a bathroom with a plastic bag over his head. Three weeks prior to his death, Julian attempted to asphyxiate himself with a trash bag from his room.

2. Ben Vereen

Ben Vereen

Ben Vereen’s 16-year- old daughter, Naja, was killed in an auto accident in 1987 on the New Jersey Turnpike when a truck overturned on her car.

3. Tony Dungy

Tony Dungy

James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of the Indianapolis Colts coach, Tony Dungy, committed suicide in 2005.

4. Lamar Odom

Lamar Odom

Odom and his ex-girlfriend of 10 years lost a third child, Jayden, to SIDS (Sudden infant Death Syndrome) in 2006.

5. Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby

Cosby lost his only son, Ennis, in 1997. The 27-year-old Columbia graduate was changing a flat tire on an early January morning when he was murdered. The killer was caught and sentenced to life without parole.

6. Prince

Prince

On October 16, 1996 Prince and Mayte had a baby boy and named him Boy Gregory. Tragically, after being born a month premature, Boy Gregory was diagnosed with Pfeiffer syndrome and died at one week old.

7. Julius “Dr. J” Erving

Julius “Dr. J” Erving

Cory Erving, the youngest son of the NBA legend died of accidental drowning when he inadvertently drove his car into a retention pond less than a mile from his family home in 2002. He was 19 years old.

8. John Travolta

John Travolta

Sixteen-year-old Jett passed away suddenly while John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston were on Christmas vacation in the Bahamas. Jett, who suffered from seizures, was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease at the age of two.

9. Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson

Tyson’s four year old daughter Exodus was accidentally strangled by a cord attached to a treadmill in 2009. The girl’s mom performed CPR on her but she was unconscious and in need of life support by the time EMTs arrived.

10. Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone

Sly’s oldest son Sage was found dead in his Studio City apartment in 2012. His autopsy confirmed he had died of a heart attack although initial reports suggested an accidental overdose.

11. Tameka Foster

Tameka Foster

Tameka’s eleven-year-old son Kile was riding an inner tube on Lake Lanier in Georgia when someone on a jet ski struck him. He was declared brain dead and taken off of life support two weeks later.

12. Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre

Dr. Dre’s 20-year-old son Andre Young, Jr. died of an overdose in 2008. His mom found him unresponsive the next morning after a night out with friends.

13. Carroll O’Connor

Carroll O’Connor

O’Connor’s son Hugh O’Connor also an actor (In the Heat of the Night) fatally shot himself in 1995. Hugh was 32 years old and had struggled with drug addiction and depression for years prior to his suicide.

14. Marie Osmond

Marie Osmond

Marie’s 18-year-old son Michael committed suicide by leaping to his death from the 8th floor balcony of his apartment. He had suffered from depression most of his life and had been in and out of rehab since he was 12.

15. Xzibit

Xzibit

In 2008, his son Xavier Kingston was born months prematurely and lived for only 13 days before he passed away.

16. Eddie Levert

Eddie Levert

Eddie lost his son Gerald in 2006. He died of an accidental overdose of prescription and over-the-counter medications. Less than 18 months later, Eddie would lose his son Sean. The county coroner ruled that Xanax withdrawal contributed to his death which he was denied while in jail.

17. Roy Orbinson

Roy Orbinson

Roy Orbison’s (Pretty Woman singer) two oldest sons, Roy and Anthony, died in a house fire in 1968. Orbison was on tour at the time of the fire.

18. George Benson

George Benson

George Benson suffered much tragedy during his lifetme. He has buried three sons. One died from kidney failure, one from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and one he lost to gun violence. His 29-year-old son, Keith Givens, was fatally shot outside a Pittsburgh bar in 1991.

19. Vince Neil

Vince Neil

In 1995, the musician’s four-year-old daughter Skylar Neil passed away from cancer.

20. O.J. Simpson

O.J. Simpson

Back in 1979, Simpson’s daughter slipped and fell into the pool. Aaren Lashone Simpson died a month before her second birthday. Simpson and Aaren’s mother Marguerite divorced that same year.

21. Robert Plant

Robert Plant

The front man for Led Zeppelin lost his son Karac to a viral infection at the age of five. “All of my Love” was written in memory of his son.

22. Cissy Houston

Cissy Houston

In February of 2012, Cissy’s only daughter, Whitney Houston, died at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. She was 48 years old.

23. Vice President Joe Biden

Vice President Joe Biden

Vice President Biden lost his baby daughter, Naomi, in 1972 when she was one year old. His wife Neilia had been driving with the couple’s three children when it was hit by a tractor trailer. Though their sons, Beau and Hunter, survived with minor injuries, both Naomi and Neilia were killed in the accident.

24. Reverend Run & Justine

Reverend Run & Justine

In 2006, Justine gave birth to a baby girl via c-section but the child was born with a condition called omphalocele and died shortly after birth. It’s a congenital malformation in which the intestine, liver, and spleen can protrude into the umbilical cord and out of the body within a translucent sac.

25. Evelyn Champagne King

Evelyn Champagne King

Evelyn and Freddie Fox lost their only child in 1988. Their daughter, Johnniea King was named for Evelyn’s mother and was only two years old.

26. Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Clapton’s four-year-old son Conor died after falling from the 53rd-floor window of his mother’s friend’s New York City apartment. Clapton dealt with the grief of his son’s death by co-writing “Tears in Heaven” with Will Jennings.

27. Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson

Robinson’s oldest son Jackie Robinson, Jr. was killed in an automobile accident in 1971. He was 24 years old.

28. Juvenile

Juvenile

His 4-year-old daughter Jelani along with her mother and 11-year-old half sister were killed by her 17-year-old half brother Anthony Tyrone Terrell.

29. Gloria Vanderbilt

Gloria Vanderbilt

Her oldest son, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, committed suicide in 1988 when he was 23 years old. He jumped from the 14th floor terrace of his mother’s Manhattan apartment. Carter was also the older brother of Anderson Cooper.

30. Carol Burnett

Carol Burnett

Burnett’s oldest daughter, Carrie Hamilton, who followed her mother’s footsteps into the entertainment industry, died of lung and brain cancer in 2002.