SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- The park bench facing Lake Washington is covered with flowers, poems, a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes and graffiti. 

Fans leave flowers and mementos in honor of Kurt Cobain near his Seattle home. 

"I miss your beautiful face and voice," one dedication reads. 

"Thank you for inspiring me," says another. 

"RIP Kurt." 

Fifteen years ago Wednesday, at a house adjacent to the park, Kurt Cobain's dead body was discovered by an electrician. 

The Nirvana frontman, 27, had committed suicide, police later ruled, killing himself with a shotgun while high on heroin and pills. 

His death ended a battle with hard drugs and added Cobain to a long list of legendary musicians, such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, whose careers were cut short by their addictions. 

Cobain's ashes were reportedly scattered in a Washington state river and a New York Buddhist temple. 

Nirvana band mates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl eventually formed other bands. Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, stayed in the limelight with an acting career and legal problems surrounding her own drug problems. Frances Bean, the couple's daughter, has largely lived outside the public eye. 

What was unclear when Cobain died was whether the music Nirvana created would endure or fade away like the grunge craze it helped to inspire. 

"At one point I thought, 15 years on, no one would really know who Kurt Cobain was outside of a group of diehard fans," said Jeff Burlingame, a Cobain biographer who grew up with the musician in Aberdeen, Washington, and knew him when he was a teenager who, without a place to sleep, crashed on mutual friends' couches. 
What is her name?
Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, stayed in the limelight with an acting career and legal problems surrounding her own drug problems.