City Remembered, In Passing Procession, A Stop At City Hall, And Mass Mark Goodbye To Gypsy - Plus Coins And Lighted Smokes Tossed Into Crypt
A jazz quartet played “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In” and “Autumn Leaves” Friday as Gypsy leader Grover Marks’ bronze casket was slipped into a crypt.
There was wailing and crying.
Then, it started to rain.
His family members threw red roses, coins and lighted cigarettes - gifts to help in the afterlife - into the crypt before it was closed at Holy Cross Cemetery.
A huge floral array was left on the sidewalk leading to the garden crypt.
The crowd of at least 100 mourners lingered, eating Longhorn Barbecue sandwiches brought to the cemetery in a catering van. Some smoked cigars and sipped Crown Royal.
The entombment ended a four-hour service that began at 9 a.m. at Hazen & Jaeger Funeral Home in the Spokane Valley where a weeklong wake took place for the 71-year-old Gypsy king - the “baro.”
As his casket was closed, grandson Michael Marks sang the Frank Sinatra song “My Way.” For the song’s refrain, mourners changed the words and sang to their dead leader, “You Did It Your Way.”
His casket then was carried from the funeral home to a Cadillac hearse by male members of his family. Every man who could touch the baro’s casket did so.
The jazz quartet played, and passing cars on South Pines slowed.
Women followed the casket, splashing water on the ground and the back door of the gray hearse, symbolically washing away sins.
The cortege left the funeral home and drove past the Spokane Valley homes of Grover Marks’ surviving sons before driving by the patriarch’s home near Fifth and Thor, without stopping.
From there, the procession drove to downtown City Hall, where the hearse stopped on Post Street.
Cars in the procession honked their horns.
Jimmy Marks jumped out of the hearse, both hands flashing victory signs, as traffic stopped on Post and Spokane Falls Boulevard.
The Gypsy activist opened the front doors of City Hall to let his late father’s spirit into the municipal landmark.
“Grover is here forever, now,” Jimmy Marks said.
The procession then continued to St. Charles Roman Catholic Church, where Mass was said.
“We pray for peace for his family,” the Rev. Steven Dublinski told mourners. “That was his one wish - peace for you.”
There wasn’t a lot of peace in the final years of Grover Marks’ life, the priest said. “Life is a great struggle.”
“We also must remember the work he did, the love he gave,” the priest said. “Most important to him was his family, his children, his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren.”
The eulogy was offered by Louis Marks, a 61-year-old Gypsy baro and businessman from Wichita, Kan.
He remembered a day years ago when the two cousins went rabbit hunting on a snowy day in Kansas after being hired to clean out a furnace. They made $22.
“Grover gave me two rabbits and $11,” Louis Marks recalled. “He was a fair guy.”
“I knew then I’d like to be like Grover one of these days.”
With the passing, Louis Marks urged those listening to remember Grover Marks by fighting prejudice.
“Not just for the Gypsies, but for all of us,” he said. “For this city, for this world.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo