Alan Freed Memorial Unveiled
Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland
May 7, 2016

Alan Freed was a Cleveland disc jockey who has been called the "Father of Rock and Roll." He coined and popularized the term "rock and roll" and produced the nation's first rock concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball at the Cleveland Arena, in 1952.

A memorial was held and an unveiling of a monument at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland on May 7, 2016. and hundreds of fans and music industry people attended.

Back to the Alan Freed Memorial music and speeches

Legendary disc jockey and rock historian Norm N. Nite served as MC and at the end of the event he called the Freed family to the covered monument and they unveiled it. Little Steven Van Zandt and others posed with the new monument to the Father of Rock and Roll.

Monica Johns, designer of the monument and President of The Johns-Carabelli Co LTD, Shawn Hachen, memorial craftsman, Mike Johns, Master Stone Carver and CFO of The Johns-Carabelli Co LTD and Michelle Shaw VP and Creative Director of The Johns-Carabelli Co LTD

Siblings Mike Johns, Monica Johns and Michelle Shaw before the unveiling

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The process of finding a final resting place for Alan Freed began back in August of 2014. The new curator of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame felt that the hall was not the proper repository for Alan's cremated remains. When the family contacted Lake View Cemetery they were greeted with much enthusiasm and the perfect location was chosen. The section of the cemetery known as 5-E where Alan's ashes are inurned is one of the most contemporary areas of the cemetery.

In October of 2014, Monica Johns of the 137 year old Johns-Carabelli Co was brought in to meet with Lance Freed to design the perfect tribute to his father Alan who died in 1965. The company has had a rich history of commemorating the lives of notable Clevelanders like John D. Rockefeller, Jeptha Wade, Marcus Hanna, Charles Brush, and Elliot Ness just to name a few. As members by invitation to the American Institute of Commemorative Art The Johns-Carabelli Co has won more national awards for their creations than all their competitors combined.

Monica researched the life and legacy of Alan Freed and wanted to be sure to design a monument that not only captured Alan's essence but also the spirit of his generation. What ultimately came to mind was the Rock Ola jukebox. There were some other concepts that were considered along the way and as a matter of fact another local monument company offered to provide a monument free of charge! Lance did not accept the offer. Lance said that he was already vested with The Johns-Carabelli Co. and was very pleased with the direction of the design.

Lance thought that perhaps including a bronze microphone might be interesting. Finally after personally visiting the Rock Ola offices and taking pictures of some of the jukeboxes on display and getting feedback from his good friend Steven Van Zant, the decision to go forward with the monument as it now stands was finalized.

The Johns-Carabelli Co recommended that local artist Peter Viyuk be engaged to hand-etch both the jukebox and Alan's likeness. This hand-etching process took over 150 hours to engrave forever these images into the beautifully polished granite. If you are familiar with Lake View Cemetery you may also be familiar with another great etching project that these two entities collaborated on. That project was the striking reproduction of the oil painting Dante and Beatrice by John Sokol created as a memorial for Helen Moss and Richard Fleischman that stands at the bottom of daffodil hill.

The entire process of creating this tribute to Alan Freed took twenty one months to complete from the initial meeting to the befitting dedication ceremony emceed by Norm Nite that feature performances by The Drifters and Jimmy Clanton and keynote speaker Steven Van Zant.

Visit the Johns-Carabelli website or see them on Facebook.

Enjoy these other images from the unveiling.

Alan Freed family unveiling his monument

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Alan Freed family with monument to their father

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Front of the Alan Freed monument

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Back of the Alan Freed monument

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Little Steven Van Zandt and Norm N. Nite
with newly unveiled Alan Freed monument

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David Porter and Little Steven Van Zandt

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Little Steven Van Zandt

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