22 | APRIL 2 • 2020 

continued from page 22
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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