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Frank Morgan’s Legacy at Green-Wood Cemetery

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Today’s post is a fun one—an unexpected mix of Hollywood lore, cemetery history, and the quiet, behind‑the‑scenes world of funeral service. It’s the kind of story I love sharing: a reminder that even in the most familiar places, there are always hidden corners, surprising connections, and lives whose legacies continue to ripple outward in ways we don’t always expect. Green‑Wood Cemetery is home to many notable figures—Elias Howe, Henry Bergh, and countless others whose monuments announce their place in history. Yet one grave that often escapes the notice of casual visitors belongs to Frank Morgan, born Francis Phillip Wuppermann, the actor whose warm, wavering voice and gentle comic confusion helped shape The Wizard of Oz . His grave, marked simply with the family name, rests on a small rise along Grape Avenue—an unassuming stone for the man who played the Wizard, Professor Marvel, the Gatekeeper, the Emerald City cabby, and the palace guard. Born in New York City in 1890, one of eleve...
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Nellie Bly "Girl" Reporter

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I’ve read a lot about Nellie Bly over the years, but after finishing the historical novel The Mad Girls of New York , I felt inspired to return to Woodlawn Cemetery and visit her grave again. This time, I noticed the memorabilia left by other visitors — including pens. On my next visit, I’ll be sure to bring an extra pen to leave in memory of this groundbreaking journalist.
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Detective Joseph Petrosino

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  Det. Joseph Petrosino was He was the NYPD’s first Italian‑American detective--and the only NYPD officer ever killed in the line of duty in a foreign country. Petrosino was murdered by Mafia members on March 12, 1909 while he was in Palermo investigating the Black Hand. It took almost a month for his remains to be returned to New York. After a funeral Mass at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Little Italy, over 200,000 New Yorkers lined the route to Calvary Cemetery— an unprecedented tribute for a police officer. The New York Times wrote that “if Petrosino had died a President or an Emperor no deeper or truer show of feeling could have been manifested.” His funeral remains one of the largest NYC has ever seen.
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A December Gathering

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  This morning, I saw that my article, A December Gathering , is now the most‑read piece on the publishing company’s website. I was surprised at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Writing about the Eppig mausoleum at St. John Cemetery was one of those rare moments when my work as a funeral director and my work as a writer came together so naturally that they felt like the same calling. The story was never just about a mausoleum. It was about legacy, reunion, and the quiet strength of a place built to hold a family’s history. A year ago, on an unseasonably warm December morning, I met members of the Eppig family at the mausoleum—some of them cousins meeting for the very first time. There was something almost cinematic about it: the soft winter light, the stillness of the cemetery, the sense that time had briefly loosened its grip so the past and present could stand in the same room. When we stepped inside, the caskets were intact—an unexpected and deeply...
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George Dribble and His Two Wives

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  The Armour-Stiner House in Irvington, New York, is one of the most visually unique homes in the world. It is the only known fully domed octagonal residence. Built in the 1860s by Paul J. Armour, a New York City financier, the structure reflects pre-Civil War architectural trends emphasizing health and efficiency. Tea merchant Joseph Stiner bought the house, in 1872, as a summer retreat. It was he who added the dome and veranda; elaborate and colorful, they became defining features. In 1882, Susie Hayt Dibble purchased the house. After her death from tuberculosis at age 43, her husband, George Dibble, married her younger sister, Annie Falls. The three of them are commemorated by a monument in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery depicting a grieving woman with a cross. It is among the cemetery's most photographed sites.  The Armour-Stiner house is open for tours year-round.
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Edwin Lister

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  Edwin Lister, born in England, served as president of the Lister Agricultural Chemical Works, a fertilizer company founded in 1850, which he operated alongside his brother, Alfred. Their business began in Tarrytown before moving to Newark, NJ. The company’s plant--which produced bone fertilizers, bone black, glue, grease, and other chemical products-- spanned 18 acres and employed over 450 workers. Their products achieved recognition and distribution worldwide, earning the company a reputation for excellence in the field. His monument in one of the most stunning in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. 
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Architecture of the Rockefeller Mausoleum: Design and Legacy

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  Standing as a prominent symbol of wealth and remembrance, the Rockefeller mausoleum crowns the cemetery's highest point. William Rockefeller (1841-1922) co-founded Standard Oil (now Exxon) with his brother John. He commissioned this mausoleum for his wife, Almira, after her death in 1920. The couple lived nearby in Rockwood Hall, a 204-room mansion on Albany Post Road. Welles Bosworth, a distinguished architect trained at the Ecole de Beaux Arts, designed the mausoleum. Bosworth also led the architecture for the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901. The mausoleum features a classical revival style. Bronze doors and engaged Ionic columns (columns attached to walls with spiral capitals) highlight this design. It also has a pyramid-shaped roof and large monolithic wall stones (single, massive stone blocks).  On the lower step of the stylobate—the platform base of the structure—appears the Rockefeller name, signifying the family's legacy.  Together, these elements giv...
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