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Pinelawn Is a Prosperous City of the Dead [1]

['John Darnton Special To The New York Times']

Date: 1971-02-21

“You know what most people buy?” exclaimed one florist surrounded by elabo rate bouquets of artificial flowers. “With all this to choose from, they ask for a single rose.”

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Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the shies on laughter‐silvered wings.

The lines are from “High Flight” by John Magee Jr., Royal Canadian Air Force flight lieutenant who was killed in 1941 at the age of 19. The poem is inscribed upon a 15‐foot slab that greets visitors at the parking lot of Pinelawn Memorial Park.

Pinelawn thinks of itself not as a cemetery but as a memorial park, with strict regulations to preserve a rus tic air by slatting bronze tab lets flat upon the ground in stead of erecting vertical tombstones. Its 900 acres 800 of them in reserve—make it the second largest memori al park in the country.

The cost of a grave ranges from about $200 in an area registered as “Section 30” to more than $1,000 in “The Heritage Garden,” which is designed for those who desire a greater degree of distinc tion and privacy.”

“Those at rest,” reads a brochure, “would wish their friends and loved ones to be inspired and heartened by the beauty of their surroundings.”

The quotation is from Wil lia► H. Locke, who founded Pinelawn in 1902.

“My father realized that New York City would have tremendous growth,” said Al fred Locke, Pinelawn's presi dent, inside an administration office constructed to resemble a vast chapel. “When he came here it was nothings ville. You had to take a ferry across the East River and catch the Long Island Rail road.”

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/21/archives/pinelawn-is-a-prosperous-city-of-the-dead.html

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