Funeral
Baer's funeral was one of the largest ever attended in Sacramento, where he had made his home for almost 30 years. "A crowd of more than 1,500 - many with scarred eyebrows and smashed noses bade farewell. Among his mourners were four former world champions, politicians, people in wheelchairs and Cub Scouts. There were 'men of wealth and distinction' - and bums shuffling off skid row. There were women in mink stoles and diamonds - and women in cotton house dresses, and in slacks. There were babies in the arms of their young mothers - and elderly couples, helping each other's halting steps. Hundreds of others, unable to get into the funeral home, crowded around the outside. Some chose vantage points on car roofs and nearby scaffolding. Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey were among his pallbearers. There were tears in the eyes of 'Curly' Owens, his one-time sparring partner, as he took down Max's gloves from a big white floral arrangement". The cemetery service was concluded by an American Legion firing squad, recognizing Baer's service in World War II. Baer's obituary made the front page of the New York Times. He was laid to rest in a garden crypt in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Sacramento. Bowing to his beloved wife's wishes, Max was buried by her faith, Roman Catholic, even though Max was really a non-sectarian believer.
Read more about this topic: Max Baer (boxer)
Famous quotes containing the word funeral:
“You scour the Bowery, ransack the Bronx,
Through funeral parlors and honky-tonks.
From river to river you comb the town
For a place to lay your family down.”
—Ogden Nash (1902–1971)
“And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral drest in his shroud.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“That poor little thing was a good woman, Judge. But she just sort of let life get the upper hand. She was born here and she wanted to be buried here. I promised her on her deathbed she’d have a funeral in a church with flowers. And the sun streamin’ through a pretty window on her coffin. And a hearse with plumes and some hacks. And a preacher to read the Bible. And folks there in church to pray for her soul.”
—Laurence Stallings (1804–1968)