Gardens of Stone --- A Cemetery Blog by Alexandra Kathryn Mosca

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...

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.

  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.