Chicago - No one, of course, could say very much about the man. A small tag near the top of the coffin told the story; "Male-White-Unknown."
He was still a mystery to the men who buried him Monday in Oakwood Cemetery, as they would have been to him, and so there was no one at hand who could relate the small details of the man's life, the tiny things which set a man apart - the sound of his voice, the affection of his old friends, the way he lived and loved. ".... We do not know who he was, or from whence he came." said the rabbi, “but we honor him."
The priest and a minister nodded -- three clergymen, all dressed in black, all in a row, standing at the head of a freshly dug grave, a gray coffin on the green carpet before them, a nameless hero inside.
The dead man was stabbed to death Aug 23 in front of the Wilson Hotel on Chicago's North Side, when he went to the aid of three teen-agers being threatened with a knife, police say. The knife was plunged into his chest.
But there is no depth to the history of the stranger for their lives; that he is thought to have been between 25 and 30, that he was 5 feet, 10 inches tall weight 140 pounds had brown hair and hazel eyes; that he was wearing multicolored shirt, green trousers, and black zippered boots that day when he was murdered; that no one knew who he was, no one knew his name; that his body lay unclaimed in a refrigerated crypt in the County Morgue for months, that this mysterious hero might have gone in an unmarked pauper’s grave without a single tear or word of mourning of his life if Kim Simon a businessman hadn't intervened.
"I read about this unknown man in the Tribune," Simon whispered before the ceremony began. “Here was a man who had tried to help where so many others walked away, and he paid for it with his life. He deserved a dignified burial. So I contacted the morgue and made the arrangements."
Simon paid the $2.40 for the grave, liner and perpetual care; a Chicago funeral chapel prepared the body; and provided the coffin and a few minutes before 11 am Monday, Rabbi H. Goren Perelumter of K.A.M Isaiah Congregation; the Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald of St Thomas of Apostle Catholic Church, and the Rev. Emergy Percell of United Church of Hyde Park arrived to pray.
Each read from briefly from the Bible, seven mourners bowed their heads, and then it was over.
Simon whispered: "There should be more to say about a man like that. It just doesn’t' seem fair."
Published in the Chicago Tribune newspaper January 2, 1975.
He was still a mystery to the men who buried him Monday in Oakwood Cemetery, as they would have been to him, and so there was no one at hand who could relate the small details of the man's life, the tiny things which set a man apart - the sound of his voice, the affection of his old friends, the way he lived and loved. ".... We do not know who he was, or from whence he came." said the rabbi, “but we honor him."
The priest and a minister nodded -- three clergymen, all dressed in black, all in a row, standing at the head of a freshly dug grave, a gray coffin on the green carpet before them, a nameless hero inside.
The dead man was stabbed to death Aug 23 in front of the Wilson Hotel on Chicago's North Side, when he went to the aid of three teen-agers being threatened with a knife, police say. The knife was plunged into his chest.
But there is no depth to the history of the stranger for their lives; that he is thought to have been between 25 and 30, that he was 5 feet, 10 inches tall weight 140 pounds had brown hair and hazel eyes; that he was wearing multicolored shirt, green trousers, and black zippered boots that day when he was murdered; that no one knew who he was, no one knew his name; that his body lay unclaimed in a refrigerated crypt in the County Morgue for months, that this mysterious hero might have gone in an unmarked pauper’s grave without a single tear or word of mourning of his life if Kim Simon a businessman hadn't intervened.
"I read about this unknown man in the Tribune," Simon whispered before the ceremony began. “Here was a man who had tried to help where so many others walked away, and he paid for it with his life. He deserved a dignified burial. So I contacted the morgue and made the arrangements."
Simon paid the $2.40 for the grave, liner and perpetual care; a Chicago funeral chapel prepared the body; and provided the coffin and a few minutes before 11 am Monday, Rabbi H. Goren Perelumter of K.A.M Isaiah Congregation; the Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald of St Thomas of Apostle Catholic Church, and the Rev. Emergy Percell of United Church of Hyde Park arrived to pray.
Each read from briefly from the Bible, seven mourners bowed their heads, and then it was over.
Simon whispered: "There should be more to say about a man like that. It just doesn’t' seem fair."
Published in the Chicago Tribune newspaper January 2, 1975.
Chicago - No one, of course, could say very much about the man. A small tag near the top of the coffin told the story; "Male-White-Unknown."
He was still a mystery to the men who buried him Monday in Oakwood Cemetery, as they would have been to him, and so there was no one at hand who could relate the small details of the man's life, the tiny things which set a man apart - the sound of his voice, the affection of his old friends, the way he lived and loved. ".... We do not know who he was, or from whence he came." said the rabbi, “but we honor him."
The priest and a minister nodded -- three clergymen, all dressed in black, all in a row, standing at the head of a freshly dug grave, a gray coffin on the green carpet before them, a nameless hero inside.
The dead man was stabbed to death Aug 23 in front of the Wilson Hotel on Chicago's North Side, when he went to the aid of three teen-agers being threatened with a knife, police say. The knife was plunged into his chest.
But there is no depth to the history of the stranger for their lives; that he is thought to have been between 25 and 30, that he was 5 feet, 10 inches tall weight 140 pounds had brown hair and hazel eyes; that he was wearing multicolored shirt, green trousers, and black zippered boots that day when he was murdered; that no one knew who he was, no one knew his name; that his body lay unclaimed in a refrigerated crypt in the County Morgue for months, that this mysterious hero might have gone in an unmarked pauper’s grave without a single tear or word of mourning of his life if Kim Simon a businessman hadn't intervened.
"I read about this unknown man in the Tribune," Simon whispered before the ceremony began. “Here was a man who had tried to help where so many others walked away, and he paid for it with his life. He deserved a dignified burial. So I contacted the morgue and made the arrangements."
Simon paid the $2.40 for the grave, liner and perpetual care; a Chicago funeral chapel prepared the body; and provided the coffin and a few minutes before 11 am Monday, Rabbi H. Goren Perelumter of K.A.M Isaiah Congregation; the Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald of St Thomas of Apostle Catholic Church, and the Rev. Emergy Percell of United Church of Hyde Park arrived to pray.
Each read from briefly from the Bible, seven mourners bowed their heads, and then it was over.
Simon whispered: "There should be more to say about a man like that. It just doesn’t' seem fair."
Published in the Chicago Tribune newspaper January 2, 1975.
He was still a mystery to the men who buried him Monday in Oakwood Cemetery, as they would have been to him, and so there was no one at hand who could relate the small details of the man's life, the tiny things which set a man apart - the sound of his voice, the affection of his old friends, the way he lived and loved. ".... We do not know who he was, or from whence he came." said the rabbi, “but we honor him."
The priest and a minister nodded -- three clergymen, all dressed in black, all in a row, standing at the head of a freshly dug grave, a gray coffin on the green carpet before them, a nameless hero inside.
The dead man was stabbed to death Aug 23 in front of the Wilson Hotel on Chicago's North Side, when he went to the aid of three teen-agers being threatened with a knife, police say. The knife was plunged into his chest.
But there is no depth to the history of the stranger for their lives; that he is thought to have been between 25 and 30, that he was 5 feet, 10 inches tall weight 140 pounds had brown hair and hazel eyes; that he was wearing multicolored shirt, green trousers, and black zippered boots that day when he was murdered; that no one knew who he was, no one knew his name; that his body lay unclaimed in a refrigerated crypt in the County Morgue for months, that this mysterious hero might have gone in an unmarked pauper’s grave without a single tear or word of mourning of his life if Kim Simon a businessman hadn't intervened.
"I read about this unknown man in the Tribune," Simon whispered before the ceremony began. “Here was a man who had tried to help where so many others walked away, and he paid for it with his life. He deserved a dignified burial. So I contacted the morgue and made the arrangements."
Simon paid the $2.40 for the grave, liner and perpetual care; a Chicago funeral chapel prepared the body; and provided the coffin and a few minutes before 11 am Monday, Rabbi H. Goren Perelumter of K.A.M Isaiah Congregation; the Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald of St Thomas of Apostle Catholic Church, and the Rev. Emergy Percell of United Church of Hyde Park arrived to pray.
Each read from briefly from the Bible, seven mourners bowed their heads, and then it was over.
Simon whispered: "There should be more to say about a man like that. It just doesn’t' seem fair."
Published in the Chicago Tribune newspaper January 2, 1975.
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