John Steinbeck, who died of a heart attack at the end of 1968, was interred at the Garden of Memories Cemetery, in Salinas. At one time, the cemetery must have sat on the edge of town. Today, Salinas surrounds the cemetery, yet its spacious grounds still serve as a quiet refuge for those coming to visit a loved one, or to relive a bit of history by visiting Steinbeck's grave site.

The older section of the cemetery, with a variety of unique headstone styles like this one, mostly holds the remains of the Anglos who once were the majority of the town's population.