newjerseynewsroom.com

BY WARREN BOROSON

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

A good many famous people are buried right here in New Jersey, including a few whose presence may surprise you. Among them: Paul Whiteman (the "King of Jazz," who asked George Gershwin to write "Rhapsody in Blue"); Dore Schary, the movie producer; and Estee Lauder, the cosmetics magnate.

You can take inventory by going to www.Findagrave.com. Hundreds of New Jerseyans are listed, and the number may seem impressive until you discover that some just happened to be victims of celebrated murders. Not a recommended way to become famous.

Lad, the fictional dog, is here, along with the model for Elsie the Cow. So's the guy who invented the rotating lawn sprinkler: Eugene Beggs (1836-1924). And mobster Joe Adonis.

There's a good representation of professional baseball players. Stars like Elston Howard, Hank Borowy, "Snuffy" Stirnweiss, Roger (Doc) Cramer, and Goose Goslin. And players who didn't amount to much, like Frank McCrea of Cleveland, who appeared in only one game in 1925 and went 1 for 5.

People closely associated with New Jersey may NOT be buried here – examples being Woodrow Wilson, president of Princeton before becoming President, buried in Washington, D.C., and comedian Lou Costello, buried in California but born in Paterson (There's a statue of him there). And people not closely associated with our state may have wound up here, like writer Isaac Bashevis Singer (He did live for a time on the upper west side of Manhattan).

I myself was surprised to learn that a number of famous opera singers are residing here. Among them: Maria Jeritza, whom Harold Schonberg of The Times called a "blonde bombshell"; mezzo Gladys Swarthout; and baritone Jerome Hines. Jeritza had a bitter feud with Benjamino Gigli, another temperamental opera singer, and urged her husband to challenge him to a duel (He didn't). Once, singing in "Tosca," Jeritza fell – and sang the aria, "Vissi d'arte," while prone. Composer Giacomo Puccini loved it – and it's become a tradition followed by other Toscas.

One reason so many famous people are pushing up New Jersey daisies is: Princeton University. They taught there or went to school there or lived there. Another reason: There's not all that much cemetery space in Manhattan.

I've compiled three lists. A top-ten list of people I consider the most important; a list of those 11 to 20, who didn't quite make the cut; and a list of also-rans. Of course, my own values influenced my choices. The lists seem to contain a disproportionate number of writers.

Top Ten List

1. James Braddock, champion boxer (Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Tenafly)
2. Aaron Burr, 3rd vice president (Princeton Cemetery)
3. Grover Cleveland, 22nd & 24th President (Princeton Cemetery)
4. Stephen Crane, writer (Evermore Cemetery, Hillside, Union County)
5. Thomas A. Edison, inventor (Edison National Memorial Site, W. Orange)
6. Albert Einstein, physicist (cremated, ashes strewn in Princeton)
7. George McClellan, Civil War general (Riverview Cemetery, Trenton)
8. Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer (Beth-El Cemetery, Washington Township)
9. Richard Stockton, politician (Princeton Cemetery)
10. Walt Whitman, poet (Harleigh Cemetery, Camden)

Second Ten List

1. Todd Beamer, United Flight 93 hero (Brainerd Cemetery, Cranbury)
2. Nicholas Murray Butler, college president, Nobel Prize-winner (Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Paterson)
3. Samuel Colgate, founder of Colgate-Palmolive (Rosedale Cemetery, Orange)
4. Jonathan Edwards, religious leader (Princeton Cemetery)
5. Maria Jeritza, opera singer (Holy Cross Cemetery, North Arlington)
6. Megan Kanka, "Megan's Law" (St. Mary's Cemetery, Trenton)
7. Vince Lombardi, football coach (Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Middleton)
8. John von Neumann, mathematician (Princeton Cemetery)
9. "Jersey" Joe Walcott, champion boxer (Sunset Memorial Park, Pennsauken)
10. William Carlos Williams, poet (Hillside Cemetery, Lyndhurst)

Also-rans

George Antheil (composer, Trenton), Virginia Apgar (medical pioneer, Westfield), George Ball (diplomat, Princeton), Martin Balsam (actor, Emerson), Sylvia Beach (publisher, Princeton), Meyer Berger (journalist, Saddle Brook), Maxwell Bodenheim (writer, Emerson), Shirley Booth (actress, Upper Montclair), Hank Borowy (ballplayer, Bloomfield), James Coco (actor, Colonia), Roger (Doc) Cramer (baseball player, Cedar Run), Mary Mapes Dodge (writer, Hillside), Albert Dekker (actor, North Bergen), Allen Dumont (TV pioneer, Upper Montclair), Philip Morin Freneau (journalist, Matawan), Wilbur J. Funk (dictionaries, Orange), Tony Galento (boxer, Orange), George Gallup (pollster, Princeton), Althea Gibson (tennis player, Orange), Allen Ginsberg (poet, Newark), Kurt Godell (mathematician, Princeton), Juanita Hall (singer, Brielle), Jerome Hines (opera singer, Millburn), Elston Howard (ballplayer, Paramus), George Kennan (diplomat, Princeton), Joyce Kilmer (writer, New Brunswick), Leon Klinghoffer (terrorist victim, Kenilworth), Estee Lauder (cosmetics, Washington Township, Bergen County), Dudley Moore (actor, Scotch Plains), Willie Mosconi (billiards champion, Bellmawr), John O'Hara (writer, Princeton), George Papanicolaou (Pap test, Clinton), Karen Ann Quinlan (comatose patient, East Hanover), John Auguste Roebling (builder of Brooklyn Bridge, Trenton), Lucy Page Rutherford (friend of FDR, Tranquility), Dore Schary (film producer, W. Long Branch), Delmore Schwartz (literary critic, Emerson), Ben Shahn (painter, Roosevelt), George (Snuffy) Stirnweiss (ballplayer, Middletown), Gladys Swarthout (opera singer, Englewood), Albert Payson Terhune (writer, Pompton Lakes), Sarah Vaughn (jazz singer, Bloomfield), Paul Whiteman (band leader, Ewing).

Warren Boroson's financial column appears on Mondays.