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

  Soupy Sales (Milton Supman) was an actor, comedian, and popular radio & television personality. The Soupy Sales Show, which ran from 1953–1966, was one of the most popular children's shows of the time. It's comedy sketches often ended with Sales getting hit with a pie in his face. That became his trademark. After the show ended, Sales became a regular panelist on the revival of What's My Line? introducing him to a new where a new generation.

  Joseph S. Carreau was a founding partner of Carreau and Snedeker, a NYSE member firm. Both Carreau and his first wife, Alys Sinclair, with whom he had two daughters, were born in 1900. Interestingly, Alys died in 1925, at the age of 25, and Joseph died at 72, in 1972.

  As a funeral director,  I am well aware that there is never a good time to lose someone we love. But a  loss  seems particularly  difficult  to bear --or recall-- when the holiday season is upon us. All around us, people are absorbed by "the magic of Christmas," and there is an ever-present sense of  gaiety . But not for those who mourn. Yet, many of  those  people find a sense of solace by visiting  cemeteries  and  decorating  family graves and mausoleums for the season. Seeing such poignant displays of love and remembrance, reinforce the continued connection that cemeteries offer. Here's a smattering of some of the beautifully decorated --whether with a small ornamented tree or a simple holiday wreath --mausoleums and graves I've come across at Christmastime. 

Clement Clarke Moore graduated first in his class from Columbia College and was a professor of classics at the General Theological Seminary in New York. In 1822, he wrote 'A Visit From St. Nicholas' ('Twas The Night Before Christmas') for his children. It became one of the most endearing and enduring Christmas poems. Every December, Manhattan's Church of the Intercession, located on the grounds of Trinity Church Cemetery, has a Clement Clarke Moore Candlelight Service to celebrate his poem. The service ends with a walk to Moore's grave.

Each and every December, cemeteries offer a sense of solace to families who are missing loved ones. Whether decorating graves and mausoleums with a second Christmas tree, or a simple holiday  wreath,    such poignant displays of love and remembrance, reinforce the continued connection that cemeteries offer. To see more holiday displays. 

Several gravesites for the Astor family can be found on the grounds of Trinity Church Cemetery & Mausoleum's "uptown" location. This one contains the remains of William Backhouse Astor, son of John Jacob Astor, who died in 1875. The cemetery, which affords views of the Hudson River, was established in 1842 by the parish of Trinity Church after burials were prohibited in Lower Manhattan because of dangerous and overcrowded conditions in city cemeteries doe to severe cholera, yellow fever, and typhoid outbreaks.

While I'm familiar with several monuments featuring canine statuary, on the Green-Wood grounds, this was a new one on me. I've been trying to find more information about the Blakley family, and the significance  behind the statue. I will report back when I do.

  Near the edge of Green -Wood Cemetery, a sculpture of a beautiful woman –Rose Guarino--reclining across stone steps stops visitors in their tracks. Open-eyed, with lips parted and long hair flowing, she is dressed in a flowing gown, and wearing sandals. She clutches a bouquet in her hands. For generations, Brooklyn locals have believed that the monument commemorates a mafia bride gunned down on her wedding day in a revenge killing. The true story behind the statue does involve a murder and is just as tragic.  In the summer of 1909, Dominica Merello and her daughter, Rose Guarino, were dining with family members on the lawn of their NJ summer home when Pietro Silverio, an irate domestic employee, rushed the women, gun in hand, to exact revenge for losing his job. As the women attempted to flee, Silverio gave chase and shot Guarino in the back.   She died three days later. Guarino's body was held for two years in the cemetery's receiving vault while the monument w...

Nearby Green-Wood Cemetery's Sylvan Water is the often-photographed mausoleum of the Michel family. In the early 20th century, the Leonhard Michel Brewing Co., located in Brooklyn, was well-known. Its story can be found in 'The Breweries of Brooklyn,' published in 1976. Tragedy struck the family when, in December of 1914, Leonhard's son, Frank, committed suicide at the age of 41. In an eerie coincidence, plans for the family mausoleum were drawn up earlier that year.

  Charles Feltman is credited with "inventing" the hot dog. In 1871, Feltman opened the Feltman Restaurant and Beer Garden in Coney Island. His establishment proved hugely popular, and on one day alone it was reported that he served 40,000 hot dogs. One of his workers, Nathan Handwerker, would go on to achieve his own fame after opening his own Coney Island hot dog restaurant: Nathan's.