| Birth: | May 9, 1873 | | Death: | Mar. 6, 1933 | 
35th Chicago Mayor. He was a Czech immigrant born in Kladno, a village near Prague. Arriving in American, the family settled in the coal mining town of Braidwood, Illinois. Anton attended just three years of Elementary School being forced into mining work to help support his family. At nineteen he started his own hauling business in Chicago. He became active in local Chicago politics and was soon elected to the state legislature and then mayor of the city. He was instrumental in swinging voters in Chicago toward the election of FDR to the Whitehouse. While on vacation he joined the entourage of President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt's victory parade in Miami. The car stopped to greet well wishers and give a short speech. Guiseppe Zangara pushed through the crowd. He fired five shots at the President-elect. Mayor Cermak fell out of the car fatally wounded. Roosevelt ordered him put back in the car as it then raced toward Jackson Memorial Hospital with Cermak cradled in his lap. The mayor never left the hospital as three weeks later he died from his wound. His body was returned to Chicago where a funeral service was held at Chicago Stadium, the facility which was home to the cities sports teams until demolished in 1995. 500,000 people lined the streets to watch the funeral procession enroute to Bohemian National Cemetery which was founded especially as a burial place for Chicago's many Czech descendants. Mayor Anton Cermak was placed in the family mausoleum. On his crypt the words "I am glad it is me instead of you", the words he uttered to FDR prior to his death. Conspiracy theories still abound. Many memorials exist: Chicago's 22nd street, the main thoroughfare through the Czechoslovak neighborhoods has been re-named Cermak Avenue while a branch of the Blueline of the Chicago El is known as the "Cermak Branch." A Cook County man made fishing lake and park is dubbed Cermak Quarry. A commemorative plaque graces Miami's Bayfront Park near the spot of the assassination attempt. (bio by: Donald Greyfield (inactive))
Search Amazon for Anton Cermak | | | Burial:
Bohemian National Cemetery
Chicago
Cook County
Illinois, USA |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: May 04, 1998
Find A Grave Memorial# 2865 |
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