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

Pro basketball star Dwayne Alonzo "Pearl" Washington got his nickname from Hall of Famer Earl "the Pearl" Monroe. At the age of eight, Washington was already a NYC  playground legend. Not surprisingly, while in high school he became the most highly recruited basketball player in the country. Ultimately, he chose Syracuse, at which he was named Big East rookie of the year. Washington also played for the NJ Nets. He died from a brain tumor at the age of 53. He is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Queens, New York.

I've long admired the work of journalist Lisa Colangelo, so I was thrilled  to give her a tour of these two fabulous Queens cemeteries. Explore the secrets and hidden history of Queens' Calvary and Saint John cemeteries  Alexandra Mosca, author and funeral director, takes amNewYork on a tour of the sprawling cemeteries. Explore the secrets and hidden history of Queens' Calvary and Saint John cemeteries Alexandra Mosca, author and funeral director, takes amNewYork on a tour of the sprawling cemeteries.

The grave of Leonard Bernstein is one of the most visited in Green-Wood Cemetery.

  In mid June, I spent an enjoyable afternoon giving friends a long-awaited tour of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. With so much to see, I did my best to hit the high points: DeWitt Clinton, Leonard Bernstein, Elias Howe and his dog Fannie, Henry Steinway, Civil War Soldiers' Monument, VanNess-Parsons....and many more. We drove to some sites and walked to others (lots of Fitbit steps for me) stopping to get a closer look at random monuments, and to read a number of poignant inscriptions. Over the years, I've traversed Green-Wood's 478 acres countless times, researching my book about the cemetery, giving public and private tours, as well as serving in my capacity as a funeral director. Yet, each and every time, I make a new find or learn of one before my visit that I must see. The Badger monument was one such grave site.   On Christmas Eve, in 2011, hearts broke across the country as we watched the awful news about a  Connecticut house fire  which claimed the liv...

  Graves of both survivors and casualties of the tragic 1912 sinking of the Titanic can be seen in a number of New York Cemeteries. Woodlawn in the Bronx and Green-Wood in Brooklyn contain the most. The grave of William Augustus Spencer is one of them. Buried beneath a slab that notes he: "Bravely Met Death At Sea," his grave is one of a number of family graves arrayed around a central family m onument. Over in Woodlawn Cemetery, the first grave I wanted to see was Archibald Gracie's. Known as a "Hero of the Titanic," Gracie was instrumental in helping other passengers into lifeboats, effectively saving their lives. The end result of my research was the April cover story for American Cemetery magazine.  

Green-Wood Cemetery's Stubenbord-Sutherland monument features a seated mourning figure holding a sprig of ivy. The granite monument is rose-colored and semi-circle in design.  The Sutherland family was active in Brooklyn politics, while the Stubenbords owned a popular Coney Island hotel. 

                                            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.

Archibald Gracie IV was instrumental in saving the lives of a number of fellow RMS Titanic passengers. Gracie, too, survived and began work on a book about that tragic night. Sadly, Gracie died eight months later from the effects of his ordeal in the sea. His book, titled "Titanic: A Survivor's Story" was published posthumously. Gracie is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, surrounded by many family graves. The Gracie ancestral home serves as the New York City mayoral residence.

The closing words to The Great Gatsby are etched into the slab in front of the monument. Despite the disappointing initial sales of the book, Max Perkins (Fitzgerald's editor at Scribner) wrote him: "The amount of meaning you get into a sentence, the dimension and intensity of the impressions you make a paragraph carry, are most extraordinary."

One of my favorite monuments in Calvary Cemetery is that of 25-year-old Rose, who died in 1927.