44°F
weather icon Mostly Clear

Family of U.S. veteran ‘devastated’ by burial rejection

Sisters Lynne Mowers and Kathy Mitchell flew across the country in October to attend a funeral for their parents at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.

Weeks earlier, officials had approved the burial of U.S. Army and Reserve veteran Charles Paul Conner and his wife Agnes on Oct. 18. The sisters had ordered a “Faith &Prayer” praying hands emblem, the inscription “Wind Beneath My Wings” and birth and death dates for their parents’ interment marker.

But a day before the scheduled burial, Mowers, who had traveled to Las Vegas from New York, received a call from Alexander Keeling, an administrator with the Nevada Department of Veterans Service, who said her parents could not be buried at the veterans’ cemetery after all.

“They didn’t bother to call us until less than 24 hours before we were supposed to have the funeral,” Mowers said. “By this point I’d already flown all the way across the country with my sister, to the one sister (Marcia) that we have that lives in Nevada. My dad’s sister and her family, they were all coming to the funeral. Everything was set. Yep. They sent us the information. So, what do you want on a headstone when I double-checked? They’re like, yes, mom can be on there. Her date can be on there, too.”

Mowers, her sisters and other relatives were “devastated” by the rejection and “no one in my family can believe the way the we have been treated” and feel “completely disrespected by the military and the cemetery staff,” she said.

Conner, who died on Aug. 19 at 84, served as a private and completed six months of active duty training, including as a military policeman, at Fort Gordon, Ga. from 1957 to 1958 when he was released to the U.S. Army Reserve to complete his remaining service obligation of six years and two months, according to a copy of his form DD-214 military record.

Then Agnes Conner, 77, died on Sept. 11 and Mowers said she asked and received permission from the cemetery to bury her remains along with those of her husband, as is a common practice for American veteran burials.

Keeling, who originally handled their bid to bury the cremains at the cemetery, could not be reached for comment.

Under the rules of burial eligibility for military veterans at a U.S. Veterans Administration national cemetery, Conner did not serve long enough to warrant interment at the Boulder City graveyard, according Terri Hendry, communications director of the state Department of Veterans Services.

In an email sent to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Hendry was contrite, saying, “we want the family of Mr. and Mrs. Conner to know how deeply sorry we are for the distress caused to the family during their time of bereavement.”

“Unfortunately, when the initial arrangements were made for the (interments) for Mr. and Mrs. Conner at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery, the process failed to discover Mr. Conner’s ineligibility for burial at the veterans’ cemetery,” she wrote.

Before the scheduled burial, a second review of Conner’s record revealed he was not qualified, Hendry stated.

“Regarding eligibility, a veteran in the Reserve is eligible if they die on active duty, active-duty training, inactive duty for training, or retiring with 20 or more years of service as a Reservist,” she wrote.

“While Mr. Conner honorably served in the Reserve back in 1957-58, he just recently passed and therefore did not meet eligibility requirements,” she stated.

For Mowers, after what she and her relatives have been through, that explanation is of no comfort.

“I think it’s a crock of crap,” she said.

Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow @JeffBurbank2 on X.

MOST READ
THE LATEST
A step back in time

If someone is researching Boulder City’s history, chances are the majority of what they find will center around the building of Hoover Dam.

Memorial deal gets approval from council

One of the final steps before installation of the monument honoring fallen soldier and Boulder City native Shane Patton happened without fanfare at the city council meeting this week.

Council OKs judge panel

If you didn’t read the agenda, you would have no idea that the city council took a vote on the issue of municipal judge in Boulder City.

Boulder City High robotics team to compete at UNLV

The High Scalers, the robotics team at Boulder City High School, will be competing in the Las Vegas Regionals of the FIRST Robotics Competition at the Thomas and Mack Center on the campus of UNLV this weekend.

Car show benefiting officers returns to BC

If you like car shows, food, music and being able to see celebrities from your youth, then mark Saturday, March 29 on your calendar.

Council nixes development idea

Call it fiscal creativity, although some developers prefer harsher terms.

Gaming in BC? Kinda…

There are only two cities in Nevada where gambling is illegal.

Garrett STEM certified by governor’s office

It’s been three years in the making but all that hard work paid off this past week for Garrett Junior High.