GETTING LOST IN THE PAST

(November 14, 2015) After leaving Kensico Cemetery, I drove over to Ferncliff Cemetery, which is a very large cemetery and even with a map that I downloaded on line it was extremely difficult to locate any of the graves that I was looking for.  So I decided to confine my search to the mausoleums.

My first stop upon entering the cemetery at the entrance on Secor Road, was the Rosewood Mausoleum. This is an extremely large building and I knew it was gong to difficult to find anything here.  The different alcoves, and hallways were marked and surprisingly after just a few minutes I was able to find the tomb of Cab Calloway.

CAB CALLOWAY was born on Christmas Day 1904 in Rochester, New York and for over 7-decades was a popular Big Band leaders who popular the energetic scat style of singing. In 1931 he recorded his most popular hit called "Minnie the Moocher." He continued to perform right up until 1994 when he suffered a stroke.  Cab Calloway died on November 18, 1994 and his ashes are interred here in the Rosewood Mausoleum.

From Rosewood, I drove around the corner to the Ferncliff Mausoleum. Upon entering it was obvious that I wasn't going to be able to find anything.  This is an enormous building and is not marked any anyway that I could see.  So I took a chance that that the office would be helpful in finding the people I am looking for.

It was late in the afternoon and the ladies in the office were not all that interested in helping me. I was about ready to give up when a worker ask me who I was looking for.  I told him that if he could just point me in the right direction I would try and find them myself, to which he laughed and said "You will never be able to find your way through the maze of hallway."

This guy knew his way around every nook and cranny of the building and quickly lead me to the tombs of Judy Garland, Ed Sullivan and Joan Crawford. Judy Garland is resting in one end of the building while Ed Sullivan and Joan Crawford are at other end.  The guy was right that I would never be able to find my way around.

JUDY GARLAND was born on June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Early in her career she performed in vaudeville before starring in he most iconic role as Dorothy Gale in the the 9139 classic "The Wizard of Oz," On June 22, 1969, Judy Garland was found dead due to a drug overdose in her London Apartment.  On  June 26 more the 20,000 people lined up to pay their respects at the Frank Campbell Funeral Home which stayed open all night to accommodate the masses.

Completely on the other end of the mausoleum are the tombs of Ed Sullivan and Joan Crawford.

ED SULLIVAN was born on September 28, 1901 in Harlem, New York.  He began his career as a reporter for the New York Daily News but he is best remembered as the host of a TV variety show that was originally known as "The Toast of the Town," which eventually became "The Ed Sullivan Show."  The show became one of the longest running TV shows in history, as it was broadcast for 23-years from 1948-1971. In 1974 he was diagnosed with cancer and died on October 13, 1974.  His funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral was attended by 3,000 people.

JOAN CRAWFORD is entombed just around the corner from Ed Sullivan. She became one of Hollywood's most recognizable and prominent movie stars.  He most famous role was "Mildred Pierce," in 1945. She married her 4th husband Alfred Steele  in 1955 when he was n executive with the Pepsi Cola Company but he died of a heart attack in 1955. Joan Crawford died on May 10, 1977 and is entombed next to her 4th Husband Alfred Steele.

After finishing with the graves that the Ferncliff employee helped me with I decided to explore and see if I could find some of the other famous people that are entombed here.  This turned out to be a mistake as I got so turned around that I could not find my way back to the exit.  For the next 45-minutes I wandered around trying to primarily to find an exit. Finally I came upon another employee and had to humble myself and ask for directions to the exit. Even after getting directions it took me another 10-minutes to make it out of this enormous building.

It was close to 4:30 before I made it out of the Mausoleum and back to the car for the short drive over to Sleep Hollow, which would be my final stop of the day.

THE IRON HORSE & THE SENTIMENTAL GENTLEMAN

(November 14, 2015) It was a short 5-minute drive from the Gates of Heaven Cemetery to Kensico Cemetery. It was close to noon when I pull through the gates of Kensico Cemetery and it was still cold and the wind was still blowing.  This is a very large cemetery and even with a map that I downloaded off of the internet it was really going to be had to located some of the graves that I was looking for. So even though it was Saturday, the office was open that was more than happy to point me in the right direction.

Lou Gehrig

With the directions I received from the ladies in the office I was able to quickly make my way to the grave of baseball Hall of Famer, Lou Gehrig, who played for the New York Yankees from 1923-1939. Know as "The Iron Horse" of the Yankees, he played in 2,130 consecutive games, a record that stood until it was broken by Cal Ripken, Jr., in 1995.  The  streak ended on May 2, 1939 when Gehrig took himself out of the game and later revealed that he was suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which is today known as Lou Gehrig's disease.  At the age of 36, the Iron Horse gave his famed farewell address which ended with "I am the luckiest man on the face of the Earth." Lou Gehrig died two years later.

Soupy Sales

From the grave of Lou Gehrig, I made my way down to the "Friar's Club Section" and quickly found the grave of comedian Soupy Sales. Born in North Carolina as Milton Supman he attended school in Huntington, West Virginia where he graduated from Marshall University with a Masters Degree in Journalism.  During his military service he would often entertain his shipmates by doing comedy routines.  After ending his military service he took his comedy talent into show business participating in a number of TV shows. He is best known for his daily children's show "Lunch with Soupy, a fast paced stream of comedy sketches almost always ending with him being on the receiving end of a pie in the face. Later he was a regular panelist on TV shows like "What's My Line," "To Tell the Truth," and "Hollywood Squares." Soupy Sales was 83 years old when he died of cancer on October 22, 2009.

Danny Kaye

One of the more unusual grave monuments in Kensico Cemetery is that of entertainer Danny Kaye, who died on March 3, 1987.  Danny Kaye was an all around entertainer starring on the stage, silver screen and later TV.  He is perhaps best known for starring along side Bing Crosby in the 1954 movie, "White Christmas." He was 76-years old when he died of heart failure in 1987.  He was cremated and his ashes interred here in Kensico Cemetery.  His grave is marked by an ornate bench which contains friezes of a baseball bat, aircraft, piano, a flower pot and musical notes.  His name and dates of birth and death are inscribed on the bench.

Tommy Dorsey

My final stop here in Kensico Cemetery is at the grave of big band leader Tommy Dorsey.  He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman,"because of his smooth toned trombone playing. He had a string 17 number one hits with his orchestra during the 1930's and 1940's, including "Indian Summer" "The Big Apple," and "Dipsy Doodle." He died on November 26, 1956 and is buried here in Kensico Cemetery along side his third wife, Jane.

By the time I finished at Kensico Cemetery it was mid-afternoon and I still had a couple of more cemeteries that I wanted to visit. So it was off to my next stop, the very large Ferncliff Cemetery in Scarsdale, New York.