Editing Florence Lawrence (section)

==Death==
At 1 p.m. on December 28, 1938, Lawrence phoned the offices of M-G-M where she was to report to work that afternoon, claiming that she was ill. Sometime later in the afternoon, Lawrence ingested ant poison and cough syrup<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-florence-lawrence/ |title=Florence Lawrence – Women Film Pioneers Project |website=wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu |access-date=April 27, 2019 |archive-date=September 22, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922121611/https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-florence-lawrence/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> at her home in West Hollywood. Accounts differ as to how Lawrence was discovered; some media reports stated her neighbor Marian Menzer heard her screams, while others say that Lawrence called Menzer stating that she poisoned herself. Menzer called an ambulance, and Lawrence was rushed to Beverly Hills Emergency Hospital. Doctors were unable to save Lawrence, who died at 2:45&nbsp;p.m.{{sfn|Brown|1999|pp=146–147}} Lawrence left a suicide note in her home addressed to her housemate Bob Brinlow, stating:

<blockquote>Dear Bob, 
:Call Dr. Wilson. I am tired. Hope this works. Good bye, my darling. They can't cure me, so let it go at that. 
:Lovingly, Florence – P.S. You've all been swell guys. Everything is yours.<ref name=lewiston>{{cite news |title=Florence Lawrence, Star of Silent Films, Suicide |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19381229&id=mSQgAAAAIBAJ&pg=3704,6611347 |access-date=April 6, 2014 |newspaper=The Lewiston Daily Sun |page=7 |date=December 29, 1938}}</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Florence Lawrence Grave.JPG|thumb|Lawrence's gravestone, Hollywood Forever Cemetery]]

Lawrence's death was ruled a "probable suicide" owing to her "ill health".{{sfn|Brown|1999|pp=146–147}} The [[Motion Picture & Television Fund]] paid for Lawrence's funeral, held on December 30, and for her unmarked grave in the Hollywood Cemetery (now [[Hollywood Forever Cemetery]]) in Hollywood. Her grave remained unmarked until 1991, when an anonymous British actor paid for a memorial marker for her.{{sfn|Brown|1999|pp=146–147}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wilson|first=Scott|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons|publisher=McFarland & Company|year=2016|isbn=978-0-7864-7992-4|edition=3rd|location=Jefferson, NC|pages=429}}</ref>{{efn-ua|Some sources name [[Roddy McDowall]] as the anonymous donor.<ref>Margaret Heidenry (2018) [https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/05/florence-lawrence-first-movie-star-old-hollywood "Introducing Florence Lawrence, Hollywood's Forgotten First Movie Star"] ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', May 25, 2018. Accessed February 23, 2021.</ref>}} It reads: "The Biograph Girl/The First Movie Star".{{sfn|Brown|1999|pp=146–147}} The date of birth on Lawrence's headstone is given as 1890.{{sfn|Brown|1999|p=148}} This inaccuracy was also stated on her death certificate filled out by the coroner. Lawrence's biographer, Kelly R. Brown, owed this mistake to "Lawrence's own brand of fiction" as she routinely subtracted years off her age. The mistake was repeated by the Pierce Brothers Mortuary, where Lawrence's funeral was held, although most obituaries printed her correct year of birth: 1886.{{sfn|Brown|1999|pp=146–147}}