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

Until his death in 1877, Dr. Noel d’Alvigny was one of the most prominent doctors in Atlanta. An original faculty member and former president of Atlanta Medical College (renamed Emory University School of Medicine), he is credited with saving the school from burning down at the hands of General Sherman’s troops. In 1850, d’Alvigny performed an entirely different kind of helpful act. Soon after Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery opened, Dr. James Nissen became the cemetery’s first interment. The physician died while visiting Atlanta during a medical convention. Afraid of being buried alive, Dr. Nissen requested that his colleague, Dr. d’Alvigny, open his casket at Oakland Cemetery and sever his jugular vein. Although Nissen’s headstone is now faded and illegible, a plaque at the site recalls this incident. Dr. d’Alvigny is believed to have inspired the character of Dr. Meade, the dedicated and wise doctor in Gone With The Wind—a plaque at his grave notes this.

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 ...

Missouri-born James Cash Penney was the 7th of 12 children born, in 1875,  to James Sr. --a farmer and Baptist minister--and his wife Mary. As a child, when he wasn’t attending school, James worked on the family farm. His father stressed the value of money and by the time James was eight years old, he was expected to pay for his own clothing. Penney began his work in retail at J. M. Hale and Brothers dry good store, shortly after he graduated from high school. Before long, he was trained as a salesman. In 1902, James Cash Penney opened his first store named Golden Rule for the credo by which Penney lived and did business. His business and personal philosophy paid off : By 1912, there were 34 Golden Rule stores across the country. In 1913, the name was changed to the J.C. Penney Co. and the company headquarters were relocated to NYC.   Penney died at the age of 95, on February 12, 1971, in New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. His funeral service took place several ...

This spectacular Renaissance Revival domed structure was designed in 1927 by architect Franklin Naylor. Built at a cost of more than $260,000, it boasts an authentic Tiffany stained glass window with a religious theme. Naylor considered this one of his most intricate works and the largest private mausoleum in America. For these reasons, he published a pamphlet about the mausoleum’s construction. Initially built for Dominico Dumbra -- the proprietor of a winery during prohibition -- the building was sold to hotel magnate Julius Manger in 1935. Manger, who graduated from Tulane University Law School, practiced law for a time before partnering with his brother, William, in real estate. Beginning their new venture in Galveston, the pair later relocated to New York City, where 500 homes were built under their watch in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Soon after, the brothers began their successful acquisition of hotels. Their holdings eventually included luxury hotels in Chicago, Boston, Washington, an...

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...

The mausoleum of Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont and his wife, Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont, is situated in a prominent spot in the Whitewood section of Woodlawn Cemetery. Designed by preeminent architect Richard Morris Hunt -- Metropolitan Museum of Art, Statue of Liberty pedestal, Biltmore Estate, Ashville NC, The Breakers, Newport RI --the mausoleum is a replica of St. Hubert's Chapel at Chateau Amboise in France, in which Leonardo DaVinci's remains are interred. Oliver Belmont's lineage was an illustrious one: The son of August Belmont Sr., whose money helped fund Belmont Park, and Caroline Perry, the daughter of Commodore Perry. He was married to the former Alva Smith Vanderbilt, a prominent figure in the women's suffrage movement.  Oliver Belmont, a financier and thoroughbred enthusiast, died on June 10, 1908, from peritonitis after surgery for a ruptured appendix. Only ten days before his bout with appendicitis, Belmont was healthy and hale, spending time with his ...

Continuing the subject of bad boys...In the 19th Century, William “Bill The Butcher” Poole was said to be the most brutal gang leader in New York.  A butcher by occupation, Poole led a gang of street toughs on the Lower East Side. A dirty fighter, Poole would gouge his opponents in the eye. Having been a member of the Bowery Boys, Poole later formed his gang. His arch-opponent was another gang leader, John Morrisey, whom Poole severely beat on the night of February 24, 1855. Three of Morrisey’s cohorts retaliated and shot Poole in the heart. Poole, 33, lingered for two weeks before he died. His last words were purported: “Good-bye boys, I die a true American.”  Poole’s funeral was huge, with reports of 6,000 mourners in attendance. After a procession through lower Manhattan, the cortege was ferried to Brooklyn and  Green-Wood Cemetery. In 2003, Green-Wood unv...

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...

During the Civil War, twelve-year-old Clarence Mackenzie signed on with the Thirteenth Regiment of the New York State Militia as a drummer boy whose duty was to beat out march cadence. In 1861, MacKenzie accompanied the unit to a camp in Annapolis. Tragically, he was killed on June 11, 1861, by the accidental discharge of a musket during a training exercise, becoming --at age 13 -– Brooklyn’s first war casualty. Three thousand people attended his funeral at Green-Wood Cemetery. MacKenzie’s grave was marked only by a wooden sign until his story became part of a book about the cemetery. After this, a campaign ensued, resulting in MacKenzie’s grave being moved to a different spot and marked by this zinc statute

Clarence Day authored several books in his time, but the 1935 publication of  Life With Father  was his most significant and enduring. A staple in English Lit classes, the book is an autobiographical account of Day's young life with his family, peppered with humorous anecdotes about his Wall Street broker father. Published in 1935, the book was later-- in 1939-- adapted as a Broadway play. On the heels of its closing, in 1947,  Life With Father  was released as a movie, co-starring a teenage Elizabeth Taylor. From 1953 to 1955,  Life With Father  was given a new life, this time as a television show. Clarence Day did not live to see the influence his work would have on popular culture as he died the same year as the book's publication. Yet, his earlier words seem prophetic now:  "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall, nations perish, civilizations grow old and die out, and,...