I was actually outside the I.J. Morris funeral home on Church Avenue in Brownsville during their funeral in 1953--among thousands who gathered there. It was the biggest thing that happened in that neighborhood. Probably half the people in the crowd were FBI agents, taking photos and making notes. I'm probably on file with them as an "ultra-junior Commie."
Well, I didn't slide into the world until six years later. But that was a big funeral. Probably the biggest in IJ's history.
I knew Joel Morris fairly well. He stayed on as an "advisor" for years after he sold out to corporate ownership. He told me that it was crazy. And that half the crowd was there in support of the Rosenbergs, and half the crowd was there to make sure they were really dead.
There are photos at the Flatbush location. Big, big crowd. Especially for the time period. Can you imagine something like that today in the Internet age?
Amy Meeropol, the Rosenbergs' granddaughter (born after they were executed) made a superb documentary, "Heir to an Execution." There's a brief video of the crowd outside I.J. Morris during the funeral. I'm not in it but you can also see the building across the street where my wife and I lived when we were first married.
Brownsville, where I lived at the time of the Rosenberg funeral, was the most densely populated neighborhood in NYC. The only vacant lot in the entire neighborhood was behind I.J. Morris. We used to play there, within sight of the coffins stacked up in their backyard.
Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu, E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu... E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.
but you can also see the building across the street where my wife and I lived when we were first married.
