Many
people actually enjoy strolling through a cemetery. There are
few spots as
peaceful and well kept, and they can lend the visitor a sense
of the past and thoughts of eternity. They can also teach about
history and biography. It's amazing who you can meet there
(in a manner of speaking).
Chuck
D'Imperio has visited cemeteries large and small across upstate New York. His
quest (he refers
to it as a hobby) began after the interment of his 99-year
old grandfather at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, just down the path from Mark
Twain. Soon Chuck was plodding through small country graveyards and leafy,
expansive memorial gardens across upstate New York to find the notable as well
as those noteworthy but forgotten. His book "Great
Graves of Upstate New York" tells about seventy legendary individuals, from actresses Lucille
Ball (buried in her hometown of Jamestown) and Helen Hayes (in her adopted
community of Nyack) to industrialists George
F. Johnson (Endicott) and Andrew
Carnegie (Sleepy Hollow), writer Rod
Serling (Interlaken), aviator Glenn
Curtiss (Hammondsport) and abolitionist Harriet
Tubman (Auburn).
Some of the persons
profiled by D'Imperio had obvious ties to New York, like author James
Fenimore Cooper (Cooperstown) and Governor
Samuel Tilden (New
Lebanon). But there are also many whose New York connection is not often appreciated.
The Wells Fargo stagecoaches opened America's western frontier and the company
is still headquartered in San Francisco, but William Fargo (Buffalo) and Henry
Wells (Aurora, close to the campus of Wells College, which he founded) started
their business with a delivery route between Albany and Buffalo.
"Big
Chuck" D'Imperio (who is alive and well and living in Oneonta) is a broadcaster and writer.
He and his wife Trish also operate Cooperstown
Walks!,
providing guided tours of that historic village.
The author spent a decade touring upstate cemeteries to write "Great
Graves".
One of the most poignant discoveries was the gravesite of Bud
Fowler in Frankfort,
near Utica. In the late 19th century Fowler was the first African-American
to play professional baseball. But the color line would be drawn and he was
shut out of the emerging major leagues, spending the years before his death
in 1913 as the successful manager of a Negro League team. Despite his earlier
fame Fowler's grave remained unmarked until a stone was placed in 1987 by the
Society for American Baseball Research.
Chuck knew two
of his subjects during their lifetime: singer Kate
Smith (buried near her home
in Lake Placid) was
a friend for 20 years, and Clayton "Peg
Leg" Bates (Palentown) was a spectacular one-legged
tap dancer who opened
the first Catskill resort that catered to African-Americans and became an effective
advocate for the disabled.
Each of the profiles
is followed by "if you
go" instructions for
those who would like to visit the gravesites. Though some sites are well marked
and easily accessible there are a few that will require careful searching and
a good hike.
Chuck D'Imperio
joins Bill Jaker on OFF THE PAGE to tell about the once-living legends whose
final resting places are among the upstate landmarks.
To ask
a question or share your own observations about notable people buried in our
region call during the live 1:00 PM broadcast to 1-888/359-9754, or post your
comments here at WSKG.Radio@Gmail.com.
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NEXT
TIME: It is 1957. Miami gangster Meyer
Lansky sends his colleague Sonny Murray to Havana to check
on the casinos he is constructing.
Sonny is a psychic whose spiritual striving draws him to Mireya,
a scholar and Afro-Cuban priestess. They travel to the Sierra
Maestra for a secret meeting with the rebel leader Fidel Castro.
On February 20th, David Dasarath Davidson of Newfield visits
OFF THE PAGE to tell about his novel "Gamble
Everything for Love", a timely work of fiction that
is based on historic and personal fact.
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