Evening star., 1933-01-08

Sixty years ago-laSt 4th OF July-he
was born in Plymouth. There were
some among the crowd that stood with
barred heads in a pelting hailstorm as
his body was lowered into the grave
who had known him most Of those
years.
Rain was falling as the funeral
cortege moved into Plymouth along the
narrow, muddy country road to the
terraced graveyard where six genera
tions of the Coolidge family lie. The
sun had made vain efforts to burst
forth through the day, but clouds swept
down upon the mountains and blotted
1t out.
There was a momentary lull in the
storm as the procession came up the
road and halted beside the graveyard.
Mrs. Coolidge stepped from her car as
the bronze casket bearing the body of
the thirtieth President Of the United
States was lifted from the hearse and
borne along the narrow pathway to the
grave dug between that of Mr. Cool
idge's stepmother, Carrie, and his son,
Calvin, jr., who died while his father
was President.
Only Close Friends Admitted.
Mrs. Coolidge, her son John, and his
wife, Florence Trumbull Coolidge,
walked in single file up the path to the
grave. Behind followed Mr. and Mrs.
close friends. Only these close friends
were admitted to the cemetery.
Grouped on the hillside across the
road were those from the villages and
farms Of the countryside. Among them
were men and women clad in the
homely clothing of the fields With
them were men and women from the
cities who had followed the slowly
moving cortege as it moved northward
from Northampton.
Rain and snow fell upon their barred
heads as the little family group as
sembled beneath canvas marque above
the grave and the Rev. Albert j. Penner,
pastor of the Edwards Congregational
Church of Northampton, who conducted
the funeral services, stepped forward for
the burial. He intoned the simple COM
initial service for the dead. There was
a brief prayer, poem. The service
ended.
Mrs. Coolidge stepped back and
walked firmly from the graveyard, her
son and his wife with her A moment
later and she had entered her car. She
drove to the old homestead and
received the sympathy of Miss Aurora
Pierce, long housekeeper there. Then
Sne turned homeWard, to Northampton.
Funeral at Northampton.
There in the city where Calvin Cool
idge made his home from the days when
he began the study of law after his
graduation from Amherst College until
his death last Thursday the Nation
over which he held the reins of Gov
ernment for 5 Y years had earlier shown
its respect and its sympathy to his
widow.
1t was in his home there, The
Beeches, that he died. stricken without
warning by heart attack. Today his
body was carried from the home to
the church where for an hour it law in
state as men and women and children
filed past in their last farewell.
There was far too little time for all
to enter who would have done so. There
were far too few seats within the walls
for those who would have attended the
funeral service.
They filled the street, standing silently
as the body was borne in and through
out the funeral service, parting to make
way for the President of the United
States and his wife and those others
with whom Calvin Coolidge had worked
and associated in his years of public
life.
There were among them Vice Presi-
dent Curtis, Charles E. Hughes, Chief