History in Woodlawn

The day before police took Nathan Leopold into custody for kidnapping and killing Robert Franks in May 1924, Leopold lunched here at the cinderella ballroom at 63rd Street and South Cottage Grove Avenue with his friend, Susan Lurie.  Leopold grabbed two newspapers, handed one to Luire and said, "Let's see what happened in the Franks case."  Lurie said she "could use the [reward] money," and Leopold joked that he could go to police and confess the crime.  She said Leopold was "gay and lighthearted" and "there was not the slightest uneasiness while we discussed the case."

Roland Burris is very much alive. But that hasn’t stopped him from erecting a tomb in his own honor. Taking hubris to a new level, the Honorable Roland Wallace Burris commissioned and installed a mausoleum for himself here in Oak Woods Cemetery, assuming, of course, that he turns out to be perishable. The words “TRAIL BLAZER” have been chiseled into the polished granite wall of this very imposing and conspicuous edifice. The next line reads “FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN IN ILLINOIS TO BECOME” and is followed by a list of official offices, appointments, and achievements, including everything from “ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL (1991-95)” right on down to “S.I.U. EXCHANGE STUDENT TO UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG, GERMANY (1959-60).”  One can only wonder if he managed to catch a Beatles show at the Kaiserkeller.  Probably not, or his tombstone would already be engraved with the words “FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN TO SEE THE FAB FOUR.”

Astutely, he left room for future achievements, although Carol Moseley Braun long ago thwarted what might otherwise now read “FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN IN ILLINOIS TO BECOME U.S. SENATOR (2009-10).” Burris was selected by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to fill the seat vacated by then-Senator Barack Obama. He retired after serving out the term, as he promised, and Republican Congressman Mark Kirk took the seat after defeating Democrat State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias in the November 2010 midterm elections.

Incidentally, Burris's tomb is right next to Olympian Jesse Owens's grave at 1035 East 67th street.

Hugh Hefner produced the first issue of Playboy Magazine in December 1953 at the kitchen table of an apartment he shared with his wife, Millie, at 6052 South Harper Avenue.