www.alphadictionary.com

Years of stress from perfecting his passion and heavy smoking caught up with the writer in his final years. In 1975, a 50-year-old Serling suffered two severe heart attacks before entering Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester for heart bypass surgery. He had a 3rd heart attack during the operation and died the following day. He is interred at the cemetery in Interlaken, New York, a part of upstate New York featured prominently in some episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Serling smoked cigarettes for most of his life, a habit that eventually took a toll on his heart. In May 1975 Serling had his first heart attack while mowing the lawn at the Interlaken lake house. Though the attack was mild, his health continued to decline and during bypass surgery Serling died. Two simultaneous memorial services were held, one at the Sage Chapel of Cornell University in New York and the other at the Unitarian Community Church of Santa Monica in California. http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/rodserling.html