July 31: Phoebe Cary

July 31:Poet Phoebe Cary died on this date in 1871, just five months after the death of her sister Alice, also a poet, whom she had tried to nurse back to health.

July 30: George Crockett Strong

July 30: Brigadier General George Crockett Strong, who led the brigade attack on Confederate Fort Wagner just weeks earlier, as depicted in the movie “Glory,” and was slightly wounded, contracted tetanus and died on this date in 1863.

Eugenia’s Got A Brand New Urn

In 1907, opera singer Ada Eugenia von Boos-Farrar became the first person to have her singing voice broadcast on the radio. Almost three years ago, in October, 2010, Eugenia Farrar’s ashes, after a ceremony in her honor, were placed into a ceramic urn in a  Green-Wood niche. Here is the blog post about that event. … Read more

July 27: Mary Marr Platt

July 27: Mary Marr Platt, movie producer, production designer, and screenwriter, with “The Last Picture Show,” “Paper Moon,” “Bad News Bears,” “Terms of Endearment” and others to her credit, died on this date in 2011.

July 24: Townsend Harris

July 24: On this date in 1986, a monument to Townsend Harris, who opened Japan to the West in 1858 and is still revered in that country, was dedicated.