God’s Waiting Room

So many retirees moved to Florida that it has been called “God’s waiting room. However, it appears that Pasadena, California had this nickname first.
 
 
16 March 1953, Times-Bulletin (Van Wert, Ohio), funeral announcement,  pg. 7:
Often a lonely heartache
Many a silent tear
But always a beautiful memory
Of one we loved so dear.
Tho’ hearts are sad
‘Tis not all gloom’
For he is only resting
In God’s Waiting Room. 
 
 
4 March 1962, Los Angeles Times, pg. H6:
Years ago, in what now seems like another and more golden age, an elderly engineer friend of mine—he was a little past 80—used to refer to Pasadena as “God’s waiting room.”
 
 
16 October 1966, Chicago Tribune, pg. A2:
MIAMI BEACH
NEW MECCA
FOR ELDERLY
BY BEN FUNK
 
Miami Beach, Oct. 15 (AP)—Besides the Miami Beach of the luxury hotels and the well to do, there’s the other Miami Beach, the one they now call “the old folks capital,” “Medicare-by-the-Sea,” and “God’s waiting room.”