If you wanted to be buried in a certain Detroit crypt, you could have counted on shelling out $45,000 to $50,000 US for a prime location.

Guess how much you'd have to spend if you want U.S. civil rights legend Rosa Parks to be your neighbor for eternity?

An excerpt from the NYT story:

How much should it cost to spend eternity near the woman responsible for the seminal moment in the civil rights movement? The Woodlawn Cemetery here, where Rosa Parks and members of her family are entombed, says $60,000.

That is now the cost of the seven crypts — priced last year at $45,000 to $50,000 each — that are closest to Mrs. Parks.

More than three dozen other crypts in the outer hall of the newly renamed Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel are being offered at $24,275 each, up from $17,000 to $20,000 before Mrs. Parks was entombed.

In death, as in life, the old real estate adage "location, location, location" apparently holds true.

Woodlawn sits like an oasis on the city's northernmost border, its towering oak and pine trees a world apart from the liquor stores, strip clubs and car dealerships that line the busy streets nearby. It is the final resting place of prominent Detroiters, including the auto barons in the Ford and Dodge families, and the family of the Motown singer Diana Ross, who plans to be buried there.

For Mrs. Parks, whose funeral in November shifted the nation's attention away from the city's troubles to fond memories of its most revered citizen, a chapel was even refurbished.

But some members of Mrs. Parks's family are furious with the cemetery, accusing it of trying to exploit her legacy. They said they were never asked if they wanted to buy any of the open crypts and were upset that the cemetery is negotiating with another unidentified family that wants to buy the seven spots closest to their beloved matriarch.