On April 9, 1947 approximately 5,000 people passed his coffin per hour, which was on display at Greenfield Village.
Only 600 could get inside St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Detroit for his funeral, but 20,000 stood quietly outside in the rain.
From 1915 to 1950, Clara and Henry Ford called Dearborn, Michigan home, staying in their beloved residence known as Fair Lane. Upon Clara’s death, Fair Lane was given to Ford Motor Company, and in 1957 Ford donated the estate and the farmlands to the University of Michigan for construction of the Dearborn campus. In 1966, it was among the first in the nation to receive the prestigious designation as a National Historic Landmark from the National Register of Historic Places. In June 2013, ownership of the Estate transferred from the University to the Henry Ford Estate, Inc., a new 501c3 corporation that will now restore, reimagine and reopen the Estate.
For the full article, see Don Lochbiler, “‘I Think Mr. Ford is Leaving Us'”, Detroit News, July 22, 1997.
Also see Henry Ford Estate entry.
John Serba, “14 fascinating facts about Henry Ford“, MLive, July 7, 2017.