On All Souls’ Day, meet the legends resting peacefully in North Jersey
Every October, Hollywood gets the cemetery wrong.
On screen, it is where fog creeps across crooked headstones, where something stirs beneath the ground, and where no sensible person would ever wander after dark. Across North Jersey right now, front porches are filling up with plastic skeletons and foam tombstones, and children are trying on costumes that turn the dead into something to be feared.
But walk the grounds of the Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Newark on a crisp autumn morning and you will find something very different: rolling lawns, century-old oaks, marble chapels lit by stained glass, and families quietly setting chrysanthemums beside the names of people they love. You will not see anyone dressed as a mummy, a monster, or a superhero. You will, however, find a Hall of Fame catcher, a heavyweight champion of the world, the woman recognized as the world’s first female film director, a congresswoman who helped win the 40-hour workweek, and an opera star honored by a pope.
As the Church prepares to observe All Souls’ Day on Monday, Nov. 2, these sacred grounds extend an invitation that is both ancient and surprisingly timely: come visit, pray, remember, and meet the neighbors.
A day set aside for remembering
All Souls’ Day is the Church’s annual commemoration of all the faithful departed. It follows All Saints’ Day on Nov. 1 and continues a tradition, centuries old, of Catholic families returning to the graves of loved ones to pray for them. The Church also encourages the practice in a special way: From Nov. 1 through Nov. 8, the faithful who devoutly visit a cemetery and pray for the dead may obtain a plenary indulgence, applicable to the souls in purgatory, under the usual conditions.
That is the heart of what a Catholic cemetery is. As the Church teaches, it is an extension of the Church itself, ministering to grief as the Church ministers to faith. It is not a place of endings. It is a place of hope.
It is also, many visitors discover, a place of genuine calm. The archdiocese’s cemeteries span hundreds of acres of park-like grounds from the mountains of Mahwah to the neighborhoods of Jersey City, with walking paths, gardens, gazebos, wildlife, and some of the most remarkable sacred art in the state. For people carrying grief, stress, or simply the noise of daily life, an hour among the trees and the quiet can be restorative.
“Our cemeteries are not places to fear. They are places of faith, beauty, and family history, where every memorial tells a story worth knowing,” says Joseph Heckel, Executive Director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Newark. “All Souls’ Day is a beautiful time to come and pray for those we love and maybe discover a few remarkable neighbors along the way.”
And what stories they are…
Yogi Berra: Gate of Heaven Cemetery, East Hanover
Few Americans have been quoted more often than Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, and few New Jerseyans are more beloved. The Hall of Fame catcher won 10 World Series championships with the New York Yankees, more than any player in baseball history, and before any of that, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, including the D-Day invasion at Normandy. He spent decades as a Montclair resident, and his legacy lives on at the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center in Little Falls.
Today he rests at Gate of Heaven Cemetery & Mausoleum in East Hanover, where visitors are greeted at the entrance by a striking 16-foot Carrara marble interpretation of Michelangelo’s final work, the Rondanini Pietà, depicting Christ supported by His mother, Mary. Inside the Chapel Mausoleum of the Resurrection, a two-story mosaic of the Risen Christ glows in brilliant color.
Gate of Heaven is also the resting place of Congressman Peter W. Rodino, who presided over the Nixon impeachment hearings; Denise Borino-Quinn of HBO’s The Sopranos; acclaimed guitarist Tony Mottola; and Frank Tripucka, the Denver Broncos’ first starting quarterback.
James J. Braddock: Mount Carmel Cemetery, Tenafly
Before he was the “Cinderella Man,” James J. Braddock was a struggling fighter from Hudson County, working the docks and accepting public relief to feed his family during the depths of the Great Depression. Then, in 1935, he stepped into the ring against Max Baer as a heavy underdog and walked out heavyweight champion of the world. When his fortunes turned, Braddock famously paid back the relief money he had received.
His rise from hardship to glory captivated a nation that badly needed hope, and in 2005 it became the acclaimed film Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe. Braddock rests at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Tenafly, a historic, 50-acre Catholic burial ground founded in 1886, with beautifully kept pathways that invite prayer and reflection.
He is in good company. Mount Carmel is also home to George Gately, the cartoonist who created the comic strip Heathcliff, and Bert Gudgeon, a silent film leading man in the Pearl White serials, including the famed Perils of Pauline, who performed his own stunts: jumping cliffs on horseback, swimming rivers, and leaping from moving trains.
Alice Guy-Blaché: Maryrest Cemetery, Mahwah
Long before Hollywood existed, the movie business had a home in Fort Lee, NJ, and one of its pioneers was a Frenchwoman named Alice Guy-Blaché. Recognized as the world’s first female film director, she began making films in Paris in the 1890s, at the very dawn of motion pictures. One of her earliest major blockbuster films was The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ, comprised of 25 scenes from the nativity to the resurrection. She utilized over 300 extras with location shooting in the Fontainebleau forest, and studio sets in Buttes-Chaumont.
After coming to the United States, she founded her own studio, Solax, and built it in Fort Lee, which at the time was the first film capital of America. Over her career, she wrote, directed, or produced hundreds of films and created many special effect techniques still used today.
She rests at Maryrest Cemetery & Mausoleum in Mahwah, nestled among the scenic mountains along the New Jersey and New York border and widely considered one of the region’s most naturally beautiful Catholic cemeteries. An 18-foot statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary welcomes visitors at the entrance, and the stone-clad Chapel Mausoleum, inspired by Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, rises with twin bell towers and a majestic rose window.
Maryrest is also the resting place of Hall of Fame basketball legend Anne Donovan, NFL player Frank Chamberlin, and Tony Lip, the real-life figure portrayed in the Academy Award-winning film Green Book. It is also home to New Jersey’s first Catholic Natural Burial Ground.
Mary Teresa Norton: Holy Name Cemetery, Jersey City
If you have ever been paid a minimum wage or worked a 40-hour week, you owe a debt to a Jersey City woman most people have never heard of. Mary Teresa Norton was the first woman elected to Congress from New Jersey, the first Democratic woman elected from the eastern seaboard, and the first woman to chair a major congressional committee. As chair of the House Labor Committee, she helped steer the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 into law, establishing the federal minimum wage, the 40-hour workweek, and limits on child labor.
She rests at Holy Name Cemetery & Mausoleum, established in 1866 to honor the Most Holy Name of Jesus and one of the oldest and most historically significant Catholic cemeteries in New Jersey. Across its 63 acres lie more than 264,000 people, generations of Hudson County families, along with Congressman James Alphonsus Hamill, 19th-century Major League pitcher Mickey Hughes, and two longtime mayors of Jersey City, Frank Hague and John Vincent Kenny.
Maria Jeritza: Holy Cross Cemetery, North Arlington
In the golden age of opera, few stars shone brighter than soprano Maria Jeritza, a celebrated leading lady of the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera whose dramatic performances made her an international sensation. She later made her home in New Jersey, and her devotion to the Church was recognized when Pope Pius XII named her a Grand Dame of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
She rests at Holy Cross Cemetery & Mausoleum in North Arlington, founded in 1915. Spanning approximately 208 acres, it is one of the largest Catholic cemeteries in the United States, and its original mausoleum is the largest Catholic mausoleum in the country, filled with museum-quality liturgical art from around the world.
Holy Cross is also the resting place of Frank E. Rodgers, the Guinness World Record holder as the longest-serving elected mayor in U.S. history; legendary tenor crooner Jimmy Roselli; 1909 World Series champion John “Dots” Miller; soccer legend Billy Gonsalves; and actor James Hall.
More Neighbors Worth Meeting
The stories do not stop there. At Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in East Orange and Newark, known as the “Bishop’s Cemetery,” rests Robert Seton, grandson of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. Bishop Seton was a highly prominent American prelate. He was the first American ever elevated to the Roman Prelatura (the papal court) and served as the dean of all monsignori in the United States.
Nearby lies Larry Corcoran, the 19th-century pitcher credited with inventing the first system of signals between pitcher and catcher, and Broadway actress Jane Lanier Brotherton, the subject of Jackson Pollock’s painting No. 7, which hangs today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
At Saint Gertrude Cemetery & Mausoleum in Colonia, Emmy Award-winning actor James Coco, legendary radio disc jockey Scott Muni, and Presidential Cabinet Secretary James P. Mitchell rest near a memorial honoring the victims of Sept. 11 that incorporates relics from the World Trade Center.
And at Christ the King Cemetery in Franklin Lakes, Caddyshack actor Dan Resin rests not far from Art Statuto, a decorated World War II Navy veteran who won two national championships at Notre Dame before playing in the NFL.
Not Strangers, but Family
Perhaps the biggest myth about cemeteries is not that they are scary. It is that they are filled with strangers.
Walk these grounds and you will find the champion beside the dockworker, the congresswoman beside the seamstress, the movie pioneer beside the grandmother who never left Bergen County. Each memorial tells a story, and together they form a lasting testament to the generations of Catholic families who built the communities we live in today. In the language of the faith, they are part of the Communion of Saints, and they are still part of us.
So, this year, after the costumes come off and the candy is gone, consider spending part of All Souls’ Day somewhere truly peaceful. Bring flowers. Say a prayer for someone you love, and for someone you never met.
Yogi Berra, who rests in East Hanover, put it best, even if he was talking about baseball: “It ain’t over till it’s over.” For Catholics, that is the whole point of All Souls’ Day. Death is not the final inning.
Discover more remarkable stories of our Legends at Rest by visiting https://rcancem.org/legendsatrest.
Editor’s note: Please note that James Roosevelt Bayley is buried in Emmitsburg, MD, at the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, not at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery as originally stated. The article has been corrected.
Featured image: Photo by Dimas Bosques
