Happy Birthday Louis Armstrong
Jazz legend and New Orleans native Louis Armstrong died in his sleep on July 6, 1971, in the Corona, NY, home where he had lived since 1943. The next day, a visitation was held in a local funeral home. Meant to be private, the name of the funeral home was withheld from the press, but neighbors quickly figured it out and soon gathered outside. A day later, a public visitation occurred from 10 A.M. until 10 P.M. at the Seventh Regiment Armory at Park and 66th Street in Manhattan. It was estimated that 25,000 people filed past Armstrong's open casket to pay their final respects. Dressed in a navy-blue suit, pink shirt, and pink and silver tie, Armstrong reposed in a steel grey casket with a white velvet interior under the grand, wooden staircase in the armory's front hall, filled with floral tributes. Armstrong's religious service took place at the Corona Congressional Church the following afternoon. Among the five hundred mourners who packed into the small brick church, four ...