Lillian Leitzel, known to her fans as “Leitzel”, was a star of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. She is buried with her husband, Alfredo Codona, a renowned trapeze artist, depicted below with Lillian as the angel.
The reported “Queen of the Air,” Leitzel (2 Jan 1892 – 15 Feb 1931) was the star of the Greatest Show on Earth. Leitzel was a tiny, faerie-like artist measuring four feet nine and weighing less than 100 pounds.
Inscription:
In everlasting memory of my beloved
Lillian Codona
Copenhagen Denmark Feb. 15, 1931
Erected by her devoted husband
Alfredo Codona
Alfred Codona, (7 Oct 1893- 30 Jul 1937), suffered a fall just two years after Leitzel’s death that ended his career. Faced with a failed career and failed marriage with his second wife Vera Bruce, Codona shot Vera four times and then killed himself with a single shot to the head.
Lillian Leitzel’s tombstone depicts the broken ring which ultimately led to her fall. “For her grand finale, she would grasp the ring with one hand and flip head over heels so rapidly that her shoulder would dislocate and then snap back into place with each turn.”
Leitzel performed this stunt for years, but in 1931, she fell over twenty feet to a hard, concrete floor and the ring snapped. Leitzel died from her injuries two days later and was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.(1)
(1) Jensen, Dean, Queen of the Air, Crown Publishers, (New York: 2013)