Late mayor Frank Rizzo is buried at Holy Sepulchre

It's not quite up there with Jim Morrison's eternal resting place in Paris.

No one leaves panties.

But Frank L. Rizzo's gravesite, in Cheltenham's Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, still attracts anonymous payers of respect to the former mayor, who passed away in 1991.

Rizzo's son, Councilman Frank Rizzo, drops by regularly, detouring for 10 or 20 minutes of quiet meditation when he's up that way on city business. He's often touched to find personal mementos that the Big Bambino's admirers have left behind.

"I go there and I find little gifts on the grave - Christmas presents and little things," Rizzo said. "I went there recently and found a 'You Can Bank on Frank' button from his political campaign.

"I collect the stuff that's there - I get Miraculous Medals and things like that - and I save it," he said. "I keep them in my desk drawer."

Last year, he also collected a graveside memory that he said will stay with him forever. Not realizing he was watching, a pair of patrolling Cheltenham police officers gave a salute as they passed the former mayor's small, spare, granite tombstone.

"To this day, they don't know I was there," Rizzo said. (He'd been obscured by a large oak tree nearby.) "And I don't know who they were. They saluted my dad's grave."

While other larger-than-life Philadelphians are also buried at Holy Sepulchre - Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack and Councilman Jack Kelly, to name two - Rizzo said he's been told that his father's grave is the most sought-after celebrity plot.

That said, the cemetery administration frowns on looky-loos. By Philadelphia Diocesan Cemeteries rules, only family members and friends are officially allowed to walk on any plot. Mementos left behind may be removed.

Frank Sr. has not opined from the Great Beyond regarding either his grave-groupies or the curious matter of his having been laid to rest outside the city limits.

Like many local Catholics of the 1800s, Councilman Rizzo's maternal ancestors chose Holy Sepulchre for their family plot, which is how Mayor Rizzo's body came to rest there. Given his druthers, "I'm sure my father would have wanted to have a Philadelphia ZIP code," said Frank Jr. "It was tough for my mom to get him even to go outside the city for a vacation." *

- Becky Batcha