Free Republic

Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, could be dragged into a messy legal battle after a Muslim family demanded that a “non-believer” who was buried next to their relation be exhumed for religious reasons. The unnamed Muslim family raised objections after an 89-year-old Roman Catholic man was buried in a plot adjacent to their relation. Shadrack Smith was buried in the multi-denominational Lychgate Lane Cemetery in Burbage, Leicestershire, following his funeral on Jan 30. Mr Smith had lived in an official gipsy camp in nearby Aston Firs for more than 20 years, and in excess of 400 relations and friends attended...

Maeve Kennedy Wednesday September 24, 2003 The Guardian A narrow cave in a gorge in Somerset has been identified as the oldest cemetery in Britain, used by generations of people from one area in the Mendips just after the last ice age, 10,000 years ago. Scientific tests, released yesterday, showed it had been sealed and abandoned more than 6,000 years before the first stone of the pyramids of Egypt was laid. The site, Aveline's Hole, is unique in Britain and earlier than anything similar on mainland Europe. According to legend it was found in 1797 by two boys so determined...

• Skeletons Found In Ancient Cemetery Still Have Shackles On Their Necks Archaeologists working in southwest France have discovered hundreds of Gallo-Roman graves dating to the second half of the 2nd century AD, with some of the skeletons featuring shackles still strapped around their necks and ankles. The site, which may have been part of an important Gallo-Roman necropolis, is situated near the amphitheatre of Saintes. The Romans dominated the area during the first and second centuries AD. The amphitheatre, which featured battles between gladiators and wild animals, could hold between 12-18,000 people. The remains of the dead would be...

Archaeologists Relocating Graves Found In Yard In Oak Brook August 1, 2014 7:34 AM CHICAGO (CBS) – A team of archaeologists has been excavating the yard of a west suburban home for the past two weeks, after the residents unearthed several graves from a 19th century cemetery. WBBM Newsradio’s Nancy Harty reports property along what’s now known as Kimberly Court in the Brook Forest subdivision of Oak Brook was once part of a cemetery that was active from 1830 to 1890. Dr. Kevin McGowan, director of the Public Service Archaeology & Architecture Program at the Uiversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,...

SIERRA VISTA — Artificial flowers and flags are being pulled at the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery. It’s not that they are prohibited, it’s that they are being pilfered and Cemetery Administrator Joe Larson cannot fathom why people are stealing them from in-ground burial sites. Apparently the thefts happened Saturday night and it wasn’t until a woman let Larson know on Monday that the artificial flowers from her loved one’s grave were taken, noting they were not there on Sunday. “We’ve had a number of other complaints this week about the stealing of artificial flowers and flags, but no real...

Germany’s first burial area for lesbians will open on Sunday in Berlin. One of the founders told The Local that the leafy resting spot is for homosexual women to be buried as they lived—with those of the same sex. “We are the first real generation of emancipated, feminist, open lesbians, and we need somewhere to be buried,” said Dr. Astrid Osterland from Safia, an association for older, mostly gay women. Hitting back at criticism of the burial area in the Georgen-Parochial-Friedhof, Osterland explained that the project had “absolutely nothing against men”. They are welcome to have their urns here, but...

RICHMOND, Va. - The mayor of Richmond announced plans Monday to build a minor-league baseball park on the site of a slave market and cemetery, prompting an outcry over what protesters said would be desecration of the area. Mayor Dwight Jones, a black minister, said the 7,200-seat ballpark would generate badly needed jobs and revenue and include a $30 million memorial. The ballbark is part of a $200 million development in Richmond's Shockoe Bottom neighborhood.

The family of a Colorado preacher’s wife is still fuming after the director of the city-owned cemetery refused to engrave her final resting place with the name ‘Jesus’ because it might offend people. The city eventually reversed course under public pressure. “We were in disbelief,” said Stacy Adams, the daughter-in-law of Linda Baker. “Who tries to censor Jesus from a cemetery?” “At first they told us it wouldn’t fit,” Adams said. “But after we kept pushing them the cemetery director told us that it might offend somebody. They weren’t going to allow it.” The family was devastated and asked the...

A cemetery's decision to withdraw its approval for a pair of SpongeBob SquarePants headstones has sparked a controversy in Cincinnati. Sgt. Kimberly Walker was killed this past Valentine's Day. Her boyfriend, Sgt. Montrell Mayo, was charged with her murder. Walker was apparently a passionate fan of SpongeBob SquarePants. Her mother, Deborah Walker, told WLWT that they placed the Nickelodeon cartoon character in Kimberly's casket. Seeking to honor Kimberly further, the family had two 6-foot-tall SpongeBob SquarePants headstones erected. The first, dressed in an Army uniform, would be for Kimberly. The second, dressed in Navy attire, would be for her twin...

The family of a Colorado preacher’s wife is still fuming after the director of the city-owned cemetery refused to engrave her final resting place with the name ‘Jesus’ because it might offend people. The city eventually reversed course under public pressure. “We were in disbelief,” said Stacy Adams, the daughter-in-law of Linda Baker. “Who tries to censor Jesus from a cemetery?” Linda Baker lost her battle with cancer last week. She was the wife of Mark Baker, the pastor of Harvest Baptist Church in Ovid. Adams said her mother-in-law was passionate about her Christian faith and her family. Her final...

For more than a year, Assembly Speaker John Pérez dated a Hollywood funeral director who faces fraud allegations in one of the biggest financial scandals to rock the U.S. funeral industry. During their relationship, Pérez, a Los Angeles Democrat, mixed political business with his personal life in ways that showed poor judgment, ethics experts say. A Pérez spokesman said the lawmaker conducted himself appropriately during a casual dating relationship. Tyler Cassity, proprietor of a boutique cemetery called Hollywood Forever as well as a Mill Valley cemetery, and defendant in a $600 million fraud lawsuit in his native Missouri, accompanied Pérez...

SIERRA VISTA — The drive to find military veterans who have died and fell through society’s cracks, leaving them without final military honors, continues. At 1 p.m. on Saturday the cremated remains of 35 veterans, and the wife of one of them, will be placed in columbaria niches at the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery off of Buffalo Soldier Trail in Serra Vista. Cemetery Administrator Joe Larson said honoring the 35, who served in War World II, the Korean War and Vietnam War, as well as during the Vietnam era and peacetime, will mean they bring the total of Missing...

An iconic Cambridgeshire cem­e­tery has been closed to members of the public as a result of the US government's shutdown. Around 3,800 US military personnel are buried at the American Cemetery at Madingley, and the site attracts thousands of visitors every year. However, tourists are now being turned away after funding was cut amid the on-going dispute between President Obama and the Republicans in Washington. The cemetery has subsequently been closed until further notice.

There was a scroll on Fox News the other day concerning the funeral of "Aunt Flossie" [spelling?] at Arlington National Cemetery ... Didn't get a chance to see the story - and can't Google it ... Any help?

SNIPPET: "The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa announced Thursday that a grand jury has indicted Shelton Thomas Bell, 19, of Jacksonville, on charges of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. He faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the two charges. According to the indictment, Bell had planned to travel to the Arabian Peninsula and join Ansar Al-Sharia, which is an alias for al-Qaida there. The group has taken responsibility for multiple attacks on Yemeni forces, including a suicide bombing during a parade in May 2012, which killed more than 100 Yemeni soldiers. The...

Denver, Colo., Jun 6, 2013 / 02:02 am (CNA).- At the Archdiocese of Denver's Mount Olivet Cemetery, no person is buried without prayers being said over them – even those whose identities are a mystery. “Sometimes we don't even know the person’s name; they could come to us as a John Doe,” Llyod Swint, assistant director of Cemeteries and Mortuaries for the Denver archdiocese, told CNA June 4. “We’ll offer prayers for the repose of their souls, for the forgiveness of their sins, their deliverance into the arms of Christ.” Because Mount Olivet and the Archdiocese mortuary are on the...

Retired Brooklyn College professor Anthony Cucchiara There are more than just dead bodies buried in Green-Wood cemetery. A construction worker last week discovered a time capsule filled with historic books hidden inside a wall of the landmark cemetery’s crematorium. The weathered metal box entitled “Green-Wood 1838-1954” was likely squirreled away in the wall in 1954 and included six books detailing the history of the 478-acre cemetery. “It's exciting to know that people in 1954 wanted to leave something in terms of the cemetery legacy for us to find,” said cemetery historian Jeff Richman. Retired Brooklyn College Professor Anthony Cucchiara,...

...Delaware River Port Authority’s Tim Ireland says the bodies of the deceased were moved elsewhere and the grave markers were deliberately left behind. “These are not stones that are looking for loved ones. These are basically just pieces of granite that were left behind,” Ireland explains.

woman was found dead in an Anoka cemetery Saturday, Dec. 22. Anoka Police responded to reports of an unresponsive woman inside Forest Hills Cemetery, 2400 Forest Ave., just after 9 a.m. When police arrived, they found the 57-year-old woman dead, according to the Anoka County sheriff's office. There were no signs of foul play. Police are calling it a "medical event."

<p>Human skulls deliberately warped into strange, alien-like shapes have been unearthed in a 1,000-year-old cemetery in Mexico, researchers say.</p> <p>The practice of deforming skulls of children as they grew was common in Central America, and these findings suggest the tradition spread farther north than had been thought, scientists added.</p>