Martin Merzer ~ Knight-Ridder News Service ~ 6/1/1990
MIAMI -- The three-ring spectacle revolving around the burial of John Ringling appears ready to fold, ending a bitter dispute between the "Wrangling Ringlings" and finally permitting the circus magnate to rest in peace 54 years after his death.
A Florida state appeals court cleared the way this week for Ringling and his wife, Mable, to be buried on the grounds of the art museum that bears their name, in Sarasota, on Florida's west coast. John's sister, Ida, also should be buried there, the court ruled.
One of the Ringling relatives who fought in court against the arrangement said yesterday she wanted to check with her attorney before throwing in the towel. But the ruling came as a relief to nearly everyone, including other relatives who had opposed the burials.
"It's high time poor John and Mabel are buried somewhere permanently," Alice Lancaster, John's grandniece, said yesterday. "They really need to be buried."
Mable died in 1929. John died in 1936. Ida died in 1950. Over time, this tangled affair featured secret disinterments of John and Mable from their resting places in New Jersey, and the "temporary" storage of Ida's body in a Sarasota funeral home -- for the last 40 years.
On one side was John Ringling North, nephew of John Ringling and son of Ida. North wanted his mother buried with John and Mable at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
On the other side were Alice Lancaster, her husband and Patricia Buck, also a grandniece of John Ringling. They maintained that Ida had nothing to do with the circus and little to do with John and Mable, and therefore should rest in peace elsewhere.
Further complicating matters:
John Ringling North, despite a monumental falling out with John Ringling and other family members, was listed as the executor of John Ringling's will. That left him in apparent control of where John, Mable and Ida would be buried.
Buck is the spokeswoman for the Ringling museum, which found itself caught in the middle. The museum's board voted last year to permit the burials, if the family or the courts ever worked the whole thing out.
The controversy was the talk of Sarasota, which John Ringling virtually created when he decided long ago to make it the winter home of his Greatest Show on Earth.
In the end, the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling that North could have the bodies buried at a memorial on museum grounds.
The Lancasters, who officially dropped out of the case a few months ago, said it was time for it to end. Buck said she needed to speak to her attorney, who is out of the country, but she seemed ready to concede defeat.
"I don't know if I have any choice," she said.
A Florida state appeals court cleared the way this week for Ringling and his wife, Mable, to be buried on the grounds of the art museum that bears their name, in Sarasota, on Florida's west coast. John's sister, Ida, also should be buried there, the court ruled.
One of the Ringling relatives who fought in court against the arrangement said yesterday she wanted to check with her attorney before throwing in the towel. But the ruling came as a relief to nearly everyone, including other relatives who had opposed the burials.
"It's high time poor John and Mabel are buried somewhere permanently," Alice Lancaster, John's grandniece, said yesterday. "They really need to be buried."
Mable died in 1929. John died in 1936. Ida died in 1950. Over time, this tangled affair featured secret disinterments of John and Mable from their resting places in New Jersey, and the "temporary" storage of Ida's body in a Sarasota funeral home -- for the last 40 years.
On one side was John Ringling North, nephew of John Ringling and son of Ida. North wanted his mother buried with John and Mable at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
On the other side were Alice Lancaster, her husband and Patricia Buck, also a grandniece of John Ringling. They maintained that Ida had nothing to do with the circus and little to do with John and Mable, and therefore should rest in peace elsewhere.
Further complicating matters:
John Ringling North, despite a monumental falling out with John Ringling and other family members, was listed as the executor of John Ringling's will. That left him in apparent control of where John, Mable and Ida would be buried.
Buck is the spokeswoman for the Ringling museum, which found itself caught in the middle. The museum's board voted last year to permit the burials, if the family or the courts ever worked the whole thing out.
The controversy was the talk of Sarasota, which John Ringling virtually created when he decided long ago to make it the winter home of his Greatest Show on Earth.
In the end, the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling that North could have the bodies buried at a memorial on museum grounds.
The Lancasters, who officially dropped out of the case a few months ago, said it was time for it to end. Buck said she needed to speak to her attorney, who is out of the country, but she seemed ready to concede defeat.
"I don't know if I have any choice," she said.
