Celebration of Fools: An Inside Look at the Rise and Fall of JCPenney

Good-bye

When the company began its historic move to New York, the founder lingered at Berta's grave so long that they had to hold the train. An automobile taxi was raced to the cemetery where everyone knew James Cash Penney would be found. Whispering urgently, men had to pull him away from the elegant grave marker.

Long after Salt Lake City, Earl Sams sadly reminisced from his Connecticut estate. "Some 18 years later, of course, was another bad time. But nothing like this. That was folly and to some extent fixable. This wasn't fixable at all. This was tragic. And there was guilt, of course. He was never really the same man after Berta died."