Not everyone buried in the Frenchtown Cemetery ever lived in Frenchtown. Here are four of them:
BUTLER, 1st Lt. Charles A. Jr. – (1916-1944) was the son of Frenchtown native Emily Opdycke. She married and moved to Philadelphia. Charles Jr. was a bombardier in the Army's 759th Bomber Squadron of the 459th Bombardment Group. On Dec. 18, 1944, on a mission from Guilia Field in Italy to bomb an oil refinery in Osweicim, Poland, his B-24 Liberator was shot down and the entire 10-man crew died. Butler is buried near his mother in the Frenchtown Cemetery. She was the former Emily Opdycke, daughter of Frenchtown horse dealer, Elisha W. Opdycke.
MADINA, Maan Z. – (1926-2013) was a Syrian native Maan Z. Madina and a long-time professor of Middle East and Asian languages and cultures at Columbia University. His collection of 800 Islamic art objects was acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2002. He was buried in the Frenchtown Cemetery beside the future resting place of his wife, Marilyn, who grew up in Frenchtown, daughter of Dr. Arthur Jenkins. She became an art historian, and was curator of the Islamic Art Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. She also co-authored “Islamic Art and Architecture – 650-1250” (2003, Yale University Press).
DOE, Jane – is the name on a temporary metal marker near the southern boundary of the Frenchtown Cemetery. It marks the grave of a woman whose body was found floating in Columbia Lake in Knowlton Township, Warren County, in 1997. In a successful attempt to prevent identification, head and hands had been cut off with a heavy, sharp instrument and were missing. Authorities estimated Jane Doe had been 25 to 30 years old, 5 feet, 9 inches, tall, and weighed 150-160 pounds.
Frenchtown undertaker W. Edward Johnson Jr. arranged for her burial in Frenchtown. The site of her grave and the type of burial vault were chosen carefully to facilitate exhumation if that should become necessary.
STRINE, Charles – (1867-1907) was a newspaper reporter from Philadelphia who became manager of a cross-country tour of the Conreid Metropolitan Opera Company. It performed “Carmen,” with Enrico Caruso in the role of Don Jose, in San Francisco on the evening of April 17, 1906. This was to have been the end of the road for Strine, who had just been appointed manager of the elegant 2,500-seat Grand Opera House in that city. But a few hours after Caruso sang, the San Francisco earthquake struck.
It killed 3,000 people and destroyed the Grand Opera House. His daughter, Grace, who was almost 5, remembered her father carrying her through the wreckage of the city. To have his dream job snatched away devastated Strine.
He remained with the Metropolitan Opera Company and was in Boston the following year when he underwent an appendectomy and died of complications. Then his wife, also named Grace, and his daughter went straight to Frenchtown and had him buried here. They moved right into the Warford House (now the Frenchtown Inn) and young Grace grew up there.
The Strines had probably become acquainted with the place as summer boarders. Young Grace grew up in the hotel and eventually married Arthur “Bricky” Britton.
Excerpts from “Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia” (a work in progress)
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