Marco Cera, Former FAMS Principal, Dead at 39

Boonton resident headed middle school from 2008 to 2010.

Marco Cera, a father of two daughters and former Franklin Avenue Middle School principal, died Friday morning according to multiple sources. Cera, 39, had served as principal at FAMS from 2008 to 2010. Members of the Franklin Lakes School Community were notified of the former principal's death in an email from Franklin Lakes School Superintendent Frank Romano on Friday. Students and colleagues alike remembered Cera fondly. "I have never met another principal quite as kind and caring as [Mr. Cera,]"  said Angelica Marra, a sophomore at Indian Hills High School who attended FAMS while Cera was principal. "He loved the school he worked for and all the students who went there. He gave FAMS and all of its students one hundred percent dedication…

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Whitney Houston Laid to Rest in Westfield

Procession arrived at noon Sunday for burial ceremony at Fairview Cemetery. Nearly 100 fans shouted 'We love you, Whitney' as hearse turned into the cemetery.

The vigil at Fairview Cemetery began at first light Sunday morning. There were no mourners, just reporters and photographers mingling congenially as they staked out a good spot for their reports back to the network morning shows or a position for the perfect photo of the funeral procession bringing Whitney Houston to the cemetery for her burial. Police officers arrived before daylight, at 6 a.m., to secure every possible corner of the Fairview property, from the Cranford border along Union County College to the south and E. Broad Street to the north. At the western end of the cemetery, Gallows Hill Road was closed to prevent any neighborhood street from messing up any potential route in which the procession of hearses and limos that would …

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Remembering Dr. Viswanathan Rajaraman and Mary Sundaram

Memorial service for Franklin Lakes couple Saturday at 10 a.m. at Hawthorne Gospel Church

Friends, family and colleagues are paying their respects and bidding farewell to a beloved Franklin Lakes couple less than a week after a single engine plane, carrying the pair, crashed at take-off from the Rickenbacker International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, shortly before 9 a.m. on June 19. According to friends, Dr. Viswanathan Rajaraman and Mary Sundaram  had attended a wedding. Rajaraman and Sundaram will be laid to rest in the Redeemer Cemetery, in Mahwah, after their funeral which will be held in the main sanctuary at the Hawthorne Gospel Church on Route 208 North, in Hawthorne, on Saturday, June 25 at 10 a.m.   Rajaraman had been a neurosurgeon and co-chief of neuro-oncology at the Hackensack University Medical Center, while his …

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Services Set For Dr. Raj & Wife

Beloved doctor and wife to be laid to rest on Saturday, June 25.

Visitation arrangments have been made for Dr. Viswanathan Rajaraman and his wife, Mary Sundaram, in the main sanctuary at the Hawthorne Gospel Church, 2000 Route 208 in Hawthone, for Friday, June 24 from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m.  Pastor John Minnema, senior pastor of the Hawthorne Gospel Church, will officate the funeral which is scheduled for Saturday, June 25 at 10 a.m. Rajarman and Sundaram, both of Franklin Lakes,  were killed in a plane crash on Sunday morning as the plane took off from Rickenbacker International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, shortly before 9 a.m. According to the Ohio State High Patrol the plane caught fire and crashed east of the runway

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PHOTOS: Clarence Clemons Remembered

Commemorating the loss of the legendary "Big Man"

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The Stone Pony Pays Tribute to The Big Man, Clarence Clemons

The bar, a frequent home of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, honors legendary saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who died on Saturday in Palm Beach, Fla.

The Stone Pony in Asbury Park opened at noon on Sunday to allow hundreds of fans to pay tribute to legendary saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Clemons, 69, the "Big Man" in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, died Saturday night after suffering complications from a stroke on June 12.  Springsteen and Clemons, who was 6-foot-4 and weighed 250 pounds,  met at the Asbury Park bar in 1971, a story both men have told onstage for the past 40 years. Fans of all ages came to pay their respects to Clemons at the very stage where he and Bruce began playing together.  Valerie Koelsch of Bear, Del., and Tony Tanzi of Ocean Township stood in front of the stage adorned with flowers, burning incense and photos, sharing memories of seeing Clarence perform live…

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Franklin Lakes Neurologist and Wife Killed in Plane Crash

Ohio plane crash claims Viswanathan Rajaraman, M.D., and Mary J. Sundaram, parents of chick-lit author Kaavya Viswanathan

Two Franklin Lakes residents—one pilot and one passenger—died Sunday morning on a New Jersey-bound plane that caught fire and crashed, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The pilot, 54-year-old Viswanathan Rajaraman, and the passenger, 50-year-old Mary J. Sundaram, were pronounced dead at the scene, the OSHP said in a press release (see .PDF file at right). The crash occurred just before 8:52 a.m. at Rickenbacker International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, where Rajaraman was attempting to take off and crashed east of the runway, OSHP said. According to nycaviation.com, the couple was heading back from their daughter's graduation at Georgetown University, making a fuel stop in Ohio. In 2007, the daughter, Kaavya Viswanathan, made news…

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