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Search goes on for 7 veterans' stories, kin, burial sites
By KEN LEWIS The Times-Union November 10, 2005
The St. Johns County Veterans Services Office had no luck finding where they were from or where they belong, despite contacting area funeral homes and state and federal veterans offices. Now Chief Veterans Service Officer Joseph McDermott is turning to the public for help.
"We're trying to find the proper place for them, to make it dignified for the veterans, II McDermott said. "We want to make every effort to find the location where they should go."
Five of the stones were for World War II veterans, one for a veteran of the Korean conflict, and one was undetermined. All of the men died in the 1980s or '90s. The earliest birth was 1878 for Army veteran James Singletary, who died in 1981.
Below are the seven names on the
headstones found in
Allen J. Brown, Army private, World War II, 1922 -1993
Steve Btewton (may be a typo), Army private, World War II, 3-19-1917 - 4-14-1984
Clarence Dixon, Army corporal, World War II, 9-11-1912 - 2-11-1984
Thomas Edison Hadley Jr., Army, rank unknown, World War II, 10-7-1922 - 12-30-1980
Isaac Samford Howell, Private first class, branch unknown, World War II 1907-1994
J C. Purifoy,
Army corporal,
James Singletary, Army rank, war unknown, 1878-1981
The stones were found when Rick
Tallman was in charge of the Veterans Services Office. He said he called the
regional office in
An officer in
"I think every veteran deserves a good burial," he said.
He recalled the strange phone call from a sheriffs deputy two years ago when the headstones were found. The county road crew went and picked them up, he said.
"They had been turned upside down, and somebody used them as a walkway to the trailer," Tallman said.
The stones' original location is
explained only by guesses and rumors, for now. Tallman heard of a graveyard in
the tiny town of
Anyone with information about them is asked to call St. Johns County Veterans Service Office at (904) 823-2463.
ken.lewisjacksonville.com, (904) 819-3546
Firstcoastnews.com
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Veteran Gravestone Mystery Unravels
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By MIKE GIMIGNANI
Special to The Record
Publication Date: 11/11/05
Joseph McDermott is much
closer to matching the tombstones outside his office to actual graves, with
help from state officials and local residents.
McDermott, the
It's the first step toward
identifying any details about the veterans since their headstones appeared
outside an abandoned mobile home in Flagler Estates almost two years ago.
"This is the best lead
I've had in months," McDermott said.
Five of the veterans were
buried at
Palatka Vice Mayor Mary Lawson
Brown, who also runs the funeral home that maintains the Evergreen Cemetery,
said she reported missing tombstones to Putnam County authorities a couple of
years ago.
She said she believes those
stones were the same ones found not long after, doubling as the front steps of
an abandoned trailer home in Flagler Estates.
"I've looked those names
up before," she said. "We were waiting for some of them (the
tombstones) to come back to us, but none of them got back to me."
One of the stones traced to
Evergreen had a typo, which the family left behind after the government
replaced it, Lawson Brown said.
Families sometimes cannot pay
burial fees that include building a concrete foundation for their loved one's
tombstone, said spokesman Mike Nacincik of the
National Cemetery Administration, which provides tombstones to honor veterans.
The markers can sit for months waiting to be picked up."Once
we deliver them, it's out of our control," he said.
Normally, veterans' tombstones
have serial or Social Security numbers engraved on the back so they can be
identified easily, but these stones don't. That stopped authorities from
identifying the markers at first, McDermott's predecessor Richard Tallman said.
"I called the national
V-A (Veterans Affairs) office and they never called me back," Tallman
said. "So they (the markers) just sat there for a while."
Although no family members
have come forward to claim the tombstones, McDermott said he believes it's just
a matter of time before he can move the stones from behind his office to their
rightful places.
"A few people called us
to say we should respect the dead," McDermott said. "I think that's
exactly what I'm doing. We'll do everything in our power -- try everything we
can -- to get this straightened out."
© The
Missing headstones turn up in
By Al Krombach
Palatka Daily News
Thursday November 17, 2005
PALATKA - Seven military
supplied gravestones that turned up at an abandoned
After an Associated Press
story about the stones appeared in state newspapers Saturday and Sunday, two
persons who said genealogical research is their hobby contacted the Palatka
Daily News to say that six of the seven men named on the headstones had
died in
Mary Lawson Brown, owner of E.W. Lawson & Son Funeral Home as well as Palatka's' vice mayor. said the stones had been stolen from behind her funeral home three or four years ago.
"As part of the services, we fill out the paperwork for veterans' benefits," she said. 'The headstones were delivered to us over a period of time.
“We contacted the families to see how they wanted to arrange to have the markers installed at the cemetery. Some said they would pick up the stones and do it themselves, or didn't reply right away or otherwise let it slip by," she said.
Brown said she reported the theft of the stones, but nothing came of it.
Two years ago, the stones were
discovered being used as a sidewalk at an abandoned mobile home in
Robert Dew of
'The names on the headstones
were virtually perfect matches to names in the Florida Death Index," he
said. "Six died in
Toni Jollay-Prevost
of
The six with
Singletary was born in 1878 and died in 1981 and could have been a World War I veteran.
Brown said someone has
volunteered to retrieve the headstones from storage in
'We will do our best to see that the headstones get to where they are supposed to be," she said.
akrombach@palatkadailynews.com
Recovered headstone to be restored
Palatka Daily News, Saturday December 17, 2005
A once-lost headstone will be restored
to its owner's resting place in
The St. Johns County Veterans Service Office said the military headstone will be placed on the grave of Clarence Dixon at 2 p.m.
For more information, call Thomas Moltimore, county veterans service officer, at 329-0327.
latest update: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 08:11
AM EST
Veteran's tombstone returned
Marker missing for 20 years returned to
By PAULETTE PERHACH
paulette.perhach@staugustinerecord.com
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Family members and
veterans from |
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More than 20 years after
being laid to rest, Clarence Dixon now lies under a tombstone.
His was one of seven veterans'
tombstones found about two years ago doubling as the front steps of an
abandoned mobile home in Flagler Estates.
The tombstone was chipped
and scratched from its long journey, but no one seemed to care at a headstone
placement ceremony held Monday.
"I didn't even
notice the cold because of the warmth of the people here," said Clarence
Dixon's younger brother, also named Clarence, a retired police chief from
The Interlachen
American Legion honored
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A family photograph of Clarence Dixon in his Army uniform. HO |
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Clarence had his hand
over his heart as "Taps" played.
"This whole
experience, there's just no words to describe what we feel in our hearts about
it," said Clarence. "We had no idea the tombstone had been taken. I'm
very proud of the veterans organizations for getting
this done."
"He was very into
his military service," said his son, Leonard, director of the Bureau of
Juvenile Justice in
After the war,
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The tombstone of US Army
Corporal Clarence Dixon was one of six headstones found in Flagler Estates.
The local veteran?s
organization is trying to find family members for the lost headstones. By
JUSTIN YRUKANIN, justin.yurkanin@staugustinerecord.com |
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"He would be overjoyed
(about the tombstone,)" said his cousin, John Bolling,
80, of
Joseph McDermott, veterans services officer for
He had no luck finding
the proper graves until he went to the public.
"I'd like to thank
the public for all their response," he said. "The headstone was long
overdue in getting there, but it got there. I couldn't have had a better
feeling in my heart."
An extended family member
read about the tombstones in the newspaper and contacted Leonard, who called
McDermott.
McDermott worked with
Thomas Moltimore of Putnam County Veterans to locate
"This is just the
first one. There are others out there," said Moltimore.
Last tombstone returned
PALATKA -- Like the veterans they commemorate, the last of the
lost tombstones has been laid to rest.
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STORY
PHOTOS
Click thumbnails to
enlarge Flags
decorate the graves of two veterans whose headstones where returned in the Joseph
‘Mac’ McDermott, the St. Johns Veterans
Ric Smith, Robert Reese, Claude Gay, Ben Meggitt and Ed Taylor salute during a ceremony to mark
the return of lost tombstones to graves of veterans held in the
LOCAL
TOP JOBS |
McDermott found the seven tombstones 18 months ago in the back of
the Veteran Affairs building at 1955
McDermott was close to properly disposing of the gravestones in
November, when he made one last attempt through the media to get leads on the
location of the proper graves.
With some tips from the public, he discovered that five of the
veterans were buried at
McDermott said he couldn't have found the graves without the help
of Mary Murphy-Hoffmann and her husband, Lynn Hoffmann, who own a private
cemetery.
Mary Murphy-Hoffmann knows all the stories of these vets,
including where they lived and how they died. She walked the cemeteries looking
for their graves, cleared the debris when she found them, and placed flags.
"She deserves a tremendous amount of credit," said
McDermott. "Without her, we wouldn't be having this ceremony."
Mary saw the story in the paper and, as a former county archivist,
felt a call to help.
"When you pass, if you don't have a headstone, no one knows
you existed," she said.
"
The ceremony took place with the morning sun filtering through the
trees onto a crowd of veterans and family standing among purple wildflowers,
the newly erected tombstones dotted around them at their rightful sites.
"We are here to honor six comrades," said
He thanked McDermott and the family members. Then there was
prayer, a gun salute, and the playing of "Taps."
Elworth Kearney was there to see the tombstone for her uncle, Isaac Samford Howell, set by his grave.
"None of us knew (there wasn't a tombstone)," she said.
"We automatically assumed the tombstone was there. We were a
little upset to find out it wasn't."
At the end of the ceremony, speaking of each soldier, Moltimore said, "Now he has a headstone, now he has a
story that can be told."
Honored soldiers
Steve Brewton 3-19-1917 to
4-14-1984 Army WWII.
Isaac Samford
Howell 1907 to 1994. WWII.
Clarence Dixon Army WWII 9-11-1912
to 2-11-1984.
J.C. Purifoy
Thomas Edison Hadley Jr.
10-7-1922 to 12-30-1980 WWII Army.
Allen J. Brown 1922-1993
James Singletary
Source: St. Johns County Veterans Services
Salute: Years late, veterans receive their headstones
By Al Krombach Palatka Daily News
PALATKA -- The saga of
seven missing military headstones drew to a close Monday when five veterans
buried in
The headstones, granite
markers furnished by the
Years later, they turned up
in the yard of an abandoned mobile home in
Through Social Security
records, the Florida Death Index and obituaries, the names on the headstones
were quickly identified and traced to
Locating the actual
gravesites took longer. Mary Murphy
Hoffmann and her husband, Lyn Hoffmann, managed to track down the veterans —
five in Evergreen in Palatka, one in Pattersonville
Cemetery in Orange Mills and one in Raiford.
“Their story was never
complete, or told, because their headstones disappeared,” Moltimore
said. “Now we have written the final
chapter.”
Clarence Dixon, buried in
Monday, the remaining five
headstones were dedicated with a simple ceremony that included words of prayer
by a veteran chaplain, and a rifle salute and taps by uniformed members of the
Florida National Guard from
“I’m grateful to the public
who worked so hard to identify these men and get their markers to them,”
McDermott said. “They are certainly entitled to have a headstone and I’m
grateful to those who helped.”
Those whose markers now
stand in Evergreen are Pvt. Steve Brewton, U.S. Army, World War II; Pfc. Isaac Samford Howell, USMC, World War II; Cpl. J.C. Purifoy, U.S. Army,
About 10 members of the
Howell family attended and stood silently through the ceremony.
akrombach@palatkadailynews.com
Last updated:
10/11/2006