New York City Police Department officers in dress blues lined the steps of the historic cathedral alongside military personnel as bagpipes blared.
Fifth Avenue was barricaded so a motorcade carrying Lemm's American flag-draped coffin could pass freely en route to Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne.
The 6-foot-4-inch native of Nebraska and NYPD detective was killed Dec. 21 with another member of his New York Air National Guard unit and four U.S. Air Force members by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan.
"Joe was extraordinary in every way (and) given every gift but length of years," said the Rev. Christopher Monturo, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church in West Harrison, during the Mass of Christian Burial led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York..
"Now all know of Joe's spirit, which cannot be contained to one place; we will never forget him," Monturo said.
A wake was held Tuesday for Lemm -- nicknamed Superman by his fellow officers -- at St. Anthony's Church..
Hundreds of Lemm's friends, family and fellow officers filed into St. Anthony's, led by Lemm's widow, Christine, his 17-year-old daughter, Brooke, and his 4-year-old son.
Lemm also received a hero's welcome at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Orange County on Monday after his body was flown by C-17 aircraft back to New York from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Lemm was a member of the Air National Guard's 105th Base Security Squadron and a 16-year veteran of the NYPD.
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