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

One summer day, while wandering the grounds of the Gate of Heaven cemetery, I came across an alabaster statue of Mary cradling Jesus in an open grassy field. The statue was striking, but the Greek surname on the gravestone, which is not often seen in Catholic cemeteries, caught my attention. There was also something faintly familiar about the name. I soon realized that I had stumbled upon the grave of Spyros Skouras, a movie executive and former president of 20th Century Fox Studios. I wondered how many others had passed by, unaware of who he was and what he had accomplished. Born to humble beginnings in Ilia, a small village in Greece, Skouras boarded a boat to America with two of his brothers in search of the American dream. He truly found it. The man who once sold popcorn in American movie theaters rose to become the president of 20th Century Fox. During his 20-year tenure—from 1942 to 1962, the longest in the company's history—he oversaw the production of major films such as Th...

  Mary Higgins Clark, known as the 'Queen of Suspense,' was a beloved and prolific writer in the mystery and suspense genre for over four decades. With more than 50 books to her name, many of which were adapted into movies, Clark had a profound impact on the literary world.  After discovering that she was laid to rest in Westchester's Gate of Heaven Cemetery, I set out one summer afternoon to find her grave. Though initially mistaken by a similar Clark monument, I eventually located her final resting place in a bucolic and shady grove. Higgins died at the age of 92 and was buried with her first husband, Warren.

  My article 'Westchester in Repose' is the cover story for July's American Cemetery & Cremation' magazine. Stories and photos from Gate of Heaven, Ferncliff, Kensico, Sleepy Hollow, and more, are featured.  The memorial that graces the cover commemorates the life of 27-year-old Marc Antony Zambetti, who tragically lost his life while on a business trip for Stella D'Oro, his family's company.

                                            In honor of opening day at Yankee Stadium. Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin had a distinguished career in baseball. The second baseman for the Yankees was a contemporary of Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Yogi Berra, and later became the team's manager. In that role, he led the team to a number of victories. The outspoken Martin's public feuds, most notably with team owner, George Steinbrenner, were legendary. Martin was killed in a car accident on Christmas day in 1989. After a funeral Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral, attended by many former teammates, he was buried in New York's Gate of Heaven Cemetery, nearby the grave of Babe Ruth. These words are etched upon his monument: "I may not have been the greatest Yankee to put on the uniform, but I was the proudest.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, to a Jewish family, Anna Held often headlined the Folies-Bergere. Later, Held claimed Paris as her birthplace, shaved a few years off her age, and converted to Catholicism upon marrying a Uruguayan playboy, Maximo Carrera. With Carrera, Held had a daughter named Liane. In 1896, Held met Florenz Ziegfeld when he hired her to be in one of his productions.     By 1897, the two were in love despite being unable to marry legally (her first husband would not grant her a divorce). However, after seven years, they were considered husband and wife by New York’s common law. It was Held who inspired the ‘Ziegfeld Follies.’ Sadly, Held died at the age of 46 in 1918 from multiple myeloma, a rare disease at the time.  Her funeral was held at Campbell’s in NYC and was well attended by stars of the era, except for Ziegfeld, who disliked funerals. Held’s “Empire-Style” burial site boasts a stone arch and two benches. It was purchased for her by actr...

Infamous 1930s crime lord Dutch Schultz is buried beneath a bench-like monument --which bears his birth name, Arthur Flegenheimer—in Hawthorne, New York’s Gate of Heaven Cemetery. Schultz, who was murdered in 1935 by rival gangsters, was a convert to Catholicism. As Schultz lay dying from gunshot wounds in a New Jersey hospital, he was baptized by Father Cornelius McInerney, a Catholic priest who had befriended the gangster while he was serving prison time. That Schultz’s body was taken to Coughlin’s Undertaking parlor in Manhattan remained a closely guarded secret. The morning of his funeral, a throng of people gathered outside the funeral home, along with reporters, to witness Schultz’s body being carried out in its casket. Unbeknown to them, his wood casket had been whisked away in the early morning hours for a leisurely ride to the cemetery. At the graveside --near that of former cohort Larry Fay, also gunned down-- Father McInerney performed a short Catholic service for the five ...

This open-air mausoleum --resembling a gazebo – was built for Marc Antony Zambetti, grandson of the Stella D’Oro Biscuit Company’s founder and son of its CEO. The granite and marble structure faces away from a verdant road in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, opposite a stone bench. A large granite plaque is embedded in the ground, in front of the bench, symbolically bisected to signify a life cut short. Etched upon this plaque are the words:  If He Who Has The Most Fun Wins The Game Of Life Marc Was Triumphant Zambetti was one of the more than 60 casualties of a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area on Oct 17, 1989, before the 3rd game of the World Series at Candlestick Park. A sales director for his family’s business, he was killed when the Nimitz Freeway, on which he was driving home from work, collapsed. Scholarships were created in Zambetti’s name at George Washington University, his alma mater, and the Riverdale Country School, from which he graduated high sc...

Alfred "Billy" Martin was only 17 years old when he was first signed to a baseball contract. When his manager and mentor, Casey Stengel, became the Yankee’s manager, in 1950, he signed Martin to the team. Martin proved to be a valuable asset, being named 1953’s MVP, the year the Yankees won the World Series. In 1975, after his playing days were behind him, Martin was hired by Yankee’s owner George Steinbrenner, to manage the team. Under his leadership, the Yankee’s won the 1976 Pennant and the 1977 World Series. Yet, despite Martin’s successes with the team, his relationship with Steinbrenner was tumultuous and tales of his firings and subsequent rehirings filled newspaper pages. A 1985 NY Times article characterized their relationship as “sport's longest-running soap opera.” Martin died on Christmas day in 1989, at the age of 61, when his pickup truck --driven by a friend--skidded off an icy road in upstate NY. His funeral Mass, which took place four days later, was he...

George Herman Ruth Jr. --known to the world as Babe Ruth--was one of the most iconic figures in the world of sports. From 1920 to 1935, Ruth was a central figure in baseball, leading the NY Yankees to 7 American League championships and 4 World Series titles. When Ruth died at 53 on August 16th (my birthday) in 1948, his casket was placed in the rotunda of Yankee Stadium as befitting his stature. So beloved was he that over 100,000 people came to pay their respects. His grave at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, NY, is a treasure trove of Yankee memorabilia. It is also “the most recognized and visited [site] on the grounds,” I was told by the cemetery’s former superintendent, Jim Ford, who gave me a glorious tour of the cemetery for an article I was working on (and for which I was given special permission). In 2002, my profile of Gate of Heaven appeared in  American Cemetery  Magazine. It remains one of the few articles written about the cemetery’s noted residents and I am...