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UPDATE: FOUR VETERANS LAID TO REST, THEY ARE
"SHELF PEOPLE" NO MORE -- And now there's growing
interest in finding final resting places for all
veterans
whose remains are left unclaimed at funeral
homes.
The Rev. Gary Rolph says prayers
yesterday at the Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen for four deceased
veterans whose cremated remains were unclaimed. (photo: ROGER AMSDEN) |
They used to be "Shelf People." But, no
more. The original story about these four veterans is here ...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nf
AUG08/nf081808-2.htm
Today, we have two stories ... first is about the
funeral of the four veterans ... second is about efforts to find the
unclaimed remains of other veterans and give them a proper funeral.
First story here
...
http://unionleader.com/article.as
px?headline=Four+veterans+finally+get+last+hon
ors&articleId=e4356022-b664-4214-828
9-ed47269f61de
Story below:
NOTE: If you wish to post a comment, go to the
end of the story and use our new "Comment"
feature.
-------------------------
Four veterans finally get last honors
By ROGER AMSDEN
New Hampshire Union Leader Correspondent
BOSCAWEN – Four servicemen whose cremated remains went unclaimed for years
at a New Hampshire funeral home were laid to rest with full military
honors at the New Hampshire Veterans Cemetery yesterday.
More than 250 people representing all branches of the armed services and a
variety of veterans organizations turned out on a hot August afternoon for
the service organized by Richard Fredette, retired Army master sergeant
and military forces honor guard coordinator, and Commander David Kenney,
U.S. Navy Reserves.
Buried were John A. "Jean" Bissonnette, an Army veteran who served from
1924 until 1929, whose cremated remains had been at the Phaneuf Funeral
Homes & Crematorium in Manchester since 1974; Robert A. Caughey, who
served with the U.S. Army in 1941 and died in 1989; John E. Davison, an
Air Force veteran of the Korean War who died in Claremont in 2002; and
William J. "Jack" Mitchell, an Army veteran of the Korean War who died in
2005.
 The
Rev. Gary Rolph, chaplain at the VA Medical Center in Manchester, presided
at the service in which urns containing the remains of the servicemen were
escorted by a color guard to the center of the site with wrapped American
flags, which at the conclusion of the ceremony were presented to
representatives of the armed services.
Rolph said that he hoped the service would bring an awareness to other
funeral homes and veterans organizations across the state that each and
every member of the military is entitled to full honors for their service
to their country.
"They have reached their final resting place in a ceremony which was
final, solemn and reverent," said Kenney at the conclusion of the service.
"We hope that this ceremony will help us reach out to others in a similar
situation.''
Roger Desjardins, New Hampshire Veterans Cemetery director, said that the
idea for the service came from a chance conversation with Arthur "Buddy"
Phaneuf, owner of Phaneuf Funeral Homes & Crematorium in Manchester.
Phaneuf had told Desjardins about his efforts to track down relatives of
those whose remains were at the home and Desjardins offered to help find
military records that would show that some of them were honorably
discharged veterans, making them eligible for free burial in the state
Veterans Cemetery.
Desjardins credited Joyce Morton, staff person at the cemetery, with
making all the phone calls and doing months of research that provided the
proper documentation for the burial of the four veterans.
He said that in recent weeks at least 10 families who still had the
cremated remains of veterans have come forward to arrange for funerals for
them, including some cases in which the families have kept the remains for
at least two generations.
"We're hoping to get the word out so that these veterans, who are our
comrades, can have a honored place in this cemetery,'' said Desjardins.
-------------------------
Second story here ...
http://unionleader.co
m/article.aspx?headline=Final+honors+only+a
+beginning&articleId=ac680d88-3993-4
6fb-9250-1cbff4d5059e
Story below:
-------------------------
Final honors only a beginning
By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM
New Hampshire Sunday News Staff
Now that four forgotten servicemen have been laid to rest, veterans groups
want to make sure that those four won't be the last.
And there's growing interest in finding final resting places for all whose
remains are left unclaimed at funeral homes around the state.
Last week, the New Hampshire Sunday News reported on the cases of three
soldiers and one airman whose cremated remains had been left unclaimed for
years at a Manchester funeral home.
Thanks to efforts by funeral director Arthur "Buddy" Phaneuf and by Roger
Desjardins, the director of the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery, the
four men were buried with military honors Friday at the cemetery in
Boscawen.
Dan Meehan of Rochester is the state coordinator for the Missing in
America Veterans Recovery Program, a national project to find, identify
and properly inter the unclaimed cremated remains of forgotten veterans
across the country.
He plans to contact all funeral homes in New Hampshire to ascertain which
may have unclaimed remains of service members. Anyone who was honorably
discharged is entitled to free burial in the state veterans cemetery.
"We don't want anybody left behind," Meehan said.
Others are working on the issue, as well.
Russ Armstrong of Gilford serves on the veterans subcommittee for the
state Council on Aging. He learned from Desjardins of the effort to find
and bury the unclaimed remains of New Hampshire veterans.
Now Armstrong, an Air Force veteran, wants to recruit representatives from
each county to contact their local funeral homes. "The goal is to first
identify the veterans that are among the unclaimed remains out there," he
said.
The group then will work with the veterans cemetery to have those service
members properly buried. "Our approach is one veteran at a time,"
Armstrong said.
Bob Jones of the Northeast POW/MIA Network has been reaching out to other
veterans organizations and funeral homes to spread awareness of the issue.
The growing interest is a fitting legacy for the four men buried here
Friday, Jones said. In military engagements, he explained, "The point man
was out in front leading the others.
"These four guys, they're still serving their country," he continued, "and
in New Hampshire, they're walking point on this issue."
Charles Hafner, president of the New Hampshire Funeral Directors
Association, said he believes most funeral directors would support a
movement to inter unclaimed remains of veterans, "as long as we're fairly
certain no family members are going to come forward and object to it.
"That would be my main concern," he said.
Hafner expects the topic will be discussed at his association's annual
meeting in January.
Kevin Cody, president of the New Hampshire Cemetery Association, said he
expects his association also will discuss the issue at its next meeting in
October.
"As cemeterians, we always want to have people have their final resting
place at our cemeteries versus on a shelf at a funeral home," he said. "We
want to have people buried with the dignity that they deserve."
Cody is the superintendent of Mount Calvary Cemetery. Last week, he got a
call from a woman who recovered the ashes of her aunt from Phaneuf Funeral
Homes after reading last Sunday's article.
It turned out the woman already had a burial space reserved in the
Manchester cemetery, where her cremated remains will soon be interred next
to those of her husband.
"Her family is doing right by claiming her and burying her," Cody said.
Since last Sunday's story ran, Phaneuf said, he's had six people contact
him about family members. And his staff has redoubled efforts to track
down relatives of others whose remains are still on his shelf.
Under a law passed in 2006, funeral directors are authorized to dispose of
cremated remains that have not been claimed after 60 days, after making "a
reasonable attempt" to contact the person's representative. But several
funeral directors told the Sunday News last week they're still hesitant to
dispose of the older remains they have, in case relatives someday turn up
looking for them.
And some directors took offense to the term "shelf people," which Phaneuf
said is sometimes used in the industry to refer to folks whose remains
have gone unclaimed for years.
Michael Bourque, owner of Wendell Butt Funeral Home in Penacook, said he'd
never heard the term before. "That's one of the most disrespectful things
I've ever heard a loved one called," he said.
Manchester funeral director Daniel Healy is the former chairman of the
state Board of Registration of Funeral Directors and Embalmers. He said
it's not clear to him whether the 2006 law pertains to cremated remains
that were left at funeral homes before that date, and said the board
should seek to clarify that question, given the newfound interest in the
issue.
But board member and retired funeral director Robert Bennett said he
believes the law's intent was to allow funeral directors to properly
dispose of abandoned remains, after efforts to have them claimed have
failed.
Bennett's own favorite spot to scatter cremated remains is off Nubble
Point in York Beach, Maine, "by the lighthouse." That's what he did with
more than 30 containers of cremated remains, some dating to the 1920s,
that were discovered at his father-in-law's funeral home after he died.
"It just seems nice, rather than just scatter them in the woods," Bennett
said.
Desjardins, who is retiring next month, hopes folks here will find a way
to properly inter all the unclaimed remains being kept at funeral homes,
not just the veterans.
"New Hampshire is always the first state to do things differently," he
said. "I'd like to see us take it one step further.
"Let's get them all off the shelf."
-------------------------
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