On Saturday night in Madison Coro Lirico sang Agnus Dei from Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings.
It seems a fitting video to play on this Monday morning, as Morristown prepares for the funeral of Morristown High School freshman Lennon Baldwin. Authorities are investigating whether bullying pushed him to take his life at his Morris Township home last week.
The service is scheduled for 10 am at the Morristown United Methodist Church.
Long lines waited inside Madison’s Dangler Funeral Home to pay their respects at Lennon’s wake on Sunday.
Arrayed around his open casket were things that he loved– a red Epiphone electric guitar, a longboard, a bowling ball bag. A small index card bore a quote from Lennon about the importance of helping others.
Nearby, the Beatles’ All You Need Is Love accompanied a computer slide show of photos from the 15-year-old’s life: Swimming with dolphins on a vacation, playing Little League baseball, bowling a strike.
His schoolboy writings talked about a favorite book, a best friend, and a tumble in a road race.
The Adagio for Strings was broadcast on the radio when President Franklin Roosevelt died, and was played at the funerals of Albert Einstein and Princess Grace.
It also commemorated victims of the 9/11 terror attacks and has been used as a soundtrack in many films, including Platoon, The Elephant Man, and Amélie.
And it appeared in two of Lennon Baldwin’s favorite TV comedies, The Simpsons and South Park.
