Meet hundreds of Northeast Ohio’s most interesting permanent residents in this entertaining guide to more than 150 cemeteries and memorials.
Our cemeteries are home to celebrities, villains, heroes, inventors, tycoons, and just plain folks. Their stories range from strange disasters to noble achievements—and just about everything in between. Come stroll among the markers and meet . . .
• Royalty, including “Polka King†Frankie Yankovic (p. 28), “True Queen of the Gypsies†Lizzie Ely (p. 175), and “Prince of Pickpockets†Louie Finkelstein (p. 32)
• “World’s Strongest Man†Stanley Radwan, who once bit in half a 5/8-inch-thick piece of steel (p. 27)
• “International word sleuth†David Guralnik, the editor who added “ain’t†to the dictionary (p. 15)
• John Malvin, who arrived as a freed slave and became the first American ship owner to bring his vessel through the port of Cleveland (p. 47)
• Akron aviatrix Mildred Natalie Stinaff, who set a record with 42 inside loops in 1930 and later died in her biplane (p. 272)
• The giant Captain Martin Van Buren Bates, discharged from the army because they couldn’t find a uniform large enough to fit him (p. 243)
• Mob boss Angelo “Big Angie†Lonardo, who became the highest-ranking crime figure to testify on behalf of the federal government (p. 26)
• Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous—twelve steps lead up to the entrance of his house (p. 306)
• Gertrude Anna Harrison, the country’s first women’s golf pro and inventor of the golf-ball-return machine (p. 104)
• “World’s richest man†John D. Rockefeller, on whose 400,000-pound(!) monument visitors still place shiny new dimes (p. 102)
• Ray Chapman, the only major league baseball player killed by a pitch (p. 105)
• The “Father of the American Christmas Tree†. . . the inventor of the traffic light . . . Buffalo Bill’s grandfather . . . the relic bones of St. Christina . . .
• And hundreds more!
