History, celebrity, leafy beauty live on at NYC cemetery
By Julia Rubin - Associated Press
A trolley waits June 27 during a stop on a tour of jazz and vaudeville greats at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. The tour takes visitors to the gravesites of Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, George M. Cohan, W.C. Handy, King Oliver and other musicians.
AP Photo/Julia Rubin
NEW YORK — Michael Cumella, dressed in 1920s garb, laid his old Victrola record player down among the tombstones and turned to the small tour group assembled under the towering trees at Woodlawn Cemetery.
“She was the diva of her day. The Beyoncé of her day,” he said, brushing leaves off the modest stone commemorating vaudeville star Nora Bayes.