22 | APRIL 2 • 2020
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sands of kids, he taught tens of
thousands of kids,
” said Miller,
whose children and grand-
children also learned to dance,
thanks to Cornell.
Sharon Gould Eaton of West
Bloomfield took lessons at age
12, became an assistant and
then a teacher for Cornell. She
remembers how he flew in to
accompany her to her son’
s
wedding.
“He was kind, he was com-
passionate, he was giving,
” she
said. “He was always positive.
He was just a beautiful, beauti-
ful human being.
”
Cornell also flew in to emcee
her Mumford High School
reunions. “He could walk into
a room and bring an entire
crowd together. He would have
them mesmerized,
” she said of
Cornell, who danced late into
his life.
Suzi Stewart Rappaport of
West Bloomfield met Cornell
when she was in her 20s. They
were friends and dance part-
ners, she said, adding that she
helped at bar mitzvah parties
in the ’
80s. “You could always
count on him,
” she said. “He
was a phenomenal friend. He
was filled with guidance, a
rock-solid citizen.
”
She would continue to help
judge the May Ball. She recalled
going back to his Oak Park
studio afterward with the other
judges, where they’
d dance all
night.
“He could make anybody
who didn’
t know how to dance
look good and dance better,
”
she said.
Jeff Milgrom, now of
Columbus, Ohio, was 13 in
1967, when he met Cornell at
a party. Milgrom took lessons
and worked for Cornell, later
emceeing parties on his own
for some 15 years in different
states. The two spoke frequently
throughout the years.
Milgrom, who runs an enter-
tainment and sports marketing
firm, called Cornell the pied
piper of young Jewish teenagers.
“Everybody back when I was
young took Joe Cornell. That’
s
what you’
d say, ‘
Did you take
Joe Cornell?’
”
He says even though Cornell
faced huge tragedies — the loss
of his son and, more recently,
the loss of a grandson, Anthony,
which left him broken-hearted
— he was well-known for mak-
ing people laugh and making
other people happy.
“Everybody knew him for
so many generations,
” he said,
adding that people would stop
Cornell to talk whenever he was
out. “He had a magnetic per-
sonality. He was a celebrity in
the Detroit suburbs for all those
years.
”
See a related story, page 54.
Jews in the D
Cornell with
grandsons
Michael and
Anthony.
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