NE W Y O R K

Everlasting love showcased on Woodlawn
Cemetery’s ‘Stories of Love’ trolley tour
By CHELSIA ROSE MARCIUS
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | FEB 12, 2020|

6:26 PM

Woodlawn Cemetery offers a trolley tour highlighting the final resting place for thousands offamous sweethearts. (Shawn Inglima/for New York Daily News)

When the husband of salsa sensation Celia Cruz laid her to rest at Woodlawn
Cemetery in the Bronx, he envisioned honoring the Cuban icon in a private
ceremony. Instead, thousands of New Yorkers showed up outside of her stately whitemausoleum in July 2003— and Cruz’s partner, Pedro Knight, watched as they danced,
wept and sang her melodies as he said his ﬁnal goodbye.

Celia Cruz's mausoleum is part of the "Love Stories of Woodlawn Trolley Tour" at Woodlawn
Cemetery in the Bronx. (Shawn Inglima/for New York Daily News)“Theirs is one of the greatest love stories here at Woodlawn,” Woodlawn Cemeteryand Conservancy historian Susan Olsen said of Knight’s devotion to Cruz — one ofover a dozen tales Olsen tells during the cemetery’s Valentine’s Day trolley tour.
“The man never had a private moment,” she said. “If he would be out here visiting
her, he would give tours. He was absolutely fantastic (when it came to) sharing thepride he had in her, his love for her and the love they had for each other.”
The 150-year-old cemetery will welcome visitors this Sunday to hop on board theLove Stories of Woodlawn Trolley Tour as it rolls through the 400-acre burial
ground, the ﬁnal resting place for thousands of famous sweethearts.

“There’s a whole lotta love in Woodlawn,” Olsen explained during a preview of thetour, as the trolley passed the mausoleum of American railroad magnate Collis Potter
Huntington, who built the monument after the death of his ﬁrst wife.

The mausoleum of American railroad magnate Collis Potter Huntington. (Shawn Inglima/for New
York Daily News)

Huntington’s second wife wound up marrying his nephew after the tycoon died,
Olsen said, stirring up a family drama for the ages. “God knows what was going on at
Thanksgiving at the Huntingtons,” she said.
Olsen’s own love affair with cemeteries began in the early 1980s when she wascurator of the historic Magevney House in Memphis. Her work in genealogy, art andarchitecture eventually led her to head the Bureau of Historical Museums in Florida,
and ultimately to Woodlawn.

Historian and tour guide Susan Olsen at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. (Shawn Inglima/forNew York Daily News)“My old boss had called me and said, ‘You love cemeteries more than you love
anything else, and the two here, Greenwood and Woodlawn, just ﬁnalized their(nonproﬁt paperwork),'” said Olsen, who has worked at the the cemetery for 19years. “The next thing I knew, I was moving to the Bronx.”
That’s when she began to read up on those interred at the national historic
landmark. There was Macy’s co-owner Isidor Straus, who died holding the hand of
his beloved wife Rosalie Ida aboard the Titanic in 1912, as well as explorer GeorgeW. De Long, who perished at sea in 1881 and was honored by his wife Emma with amonument of a man trying to ﬁnd his way home.

The grave of Macy’s co-owner Isidor Straus, who died with his beloved wife Rosalie Ida Straus
aboard the Titanic in 1912 (Shawn Inglima/for New York Daily News)

Then there was Fiorello La Guardia, the 99th mayor of New York whose wife Thea
and young daughter Fioretta died as he was rising the political ranks. Olsen said La
Guardia’s second wife, Marie Fisher, had the politician’s original Carrara marble
monument for Thea and Fioretta cast in bronze to preserve their legacy.

Patricia Cronin's "Memorial to a Marriage" sculpture, part of the "Love Stories of Woodlawn
Trolley Tour" at Woodlawn Cemetery. (Shawn Inglima/for New York Daily News)“A lot of our love stories are revealed through heirship afﬁdavits —people’spaperwork (regarding) who can be put in the family lot,” said Olsen, noting that thecemetery has over one million documents in its archives. “Their stories are a very
personal way to remember folks, and to remember the love they had for one
another."

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