Missing in the Flood
by Suzanne Strempek Shea
AUGUST 30, 2010 TAGS:
Four years ago, I attended a funeral for two people I did not know.
I was not alone in that. Not one of my fellow mourners - make that not one of my fellow citizens on the planet – knew the identities of the individuals being laid to rest. But there 300 or so of us were, at 4 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2006, the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, standing in a sweltering semi-circle in Gulfport, Mississippi’s Evergreen Cemetery, paying both our first and final respects.
In the shade of a funeral home canopy rested matching metal caskets bearing the only two unidentified Harrison County victims of Hurricane Katrina. The devastating Category 5 storm had made landfall in nearby Waveland a year earlier, claiming the lives of approximately 1,833 souls, 238 of those in Mississippi. In all, 160 died in the state’s three most populated coastal counties – 146 (including three never recovered) in Harrison and Hancock Counties, and 14 (including two unidentified) in Jackson.
A priest, a rabbi and a minister presided over the service comprising donations and volunteers from the county, its coroner’s office, five funeral homes and two mortuaries. Because their names were unknown, Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove gave them new ones: Will, for the will of the people to continue on, and Strength, representing the power of those who wished to rebuild.
The program distributed that afternoon noted that “Will was a white male, 60-70 years of age, 5’9” tall and 250 lbs. He had gray hair that was receding/balding. He was found wearing blue Sun N Sand Swim Trunks, size large, and they had gold trim at the top with stripes down the legs. His middle finger was partially amputated and his left ring finger was amputated at the tip.”
“Strength,” the program informed, “was a black male, 25-35 years of age, 5’9” tall and 200 lbs. He had black hair and had very prominent incisors. He had a tattoo on his left forearm that read, ‘Love Jones.’ He was found wearing blue denim pants, size 32/34, Old Navy brand, and a hooded sweatshirt, size XL, Old Navy Brand.”
In shorts, sundresses, dress shirts and ties, we stood on the dry grass as prayers were recited and readings were offered. I wore the one skirt I’d brought on the trip made to the Gulf Coast for a book I was researching on Christian churches nationwide. In between visiting one in Waveland the previous Sunday and another in Mobile, Alabama, the following one, I was spending the week volunteering to help Katrina victims through an effort based at yet another church, half an hour north. The anniversary of the storm was a designated day off from the land clearing, painting and tiling I’d been part of for a few days. The local Sun Herald gave a variety of ideas for commemorating the anniversary, including attending a park dedication, a blood drive and the reopening of a hurricane-damaged hospital. The note about the burial of two unknowns grabbed me - mostly because I worried no one would attend.
I found that many locals know their way to Evergreen Cemetery, and they venture there annually to commemorate the lives of a few more unknowns. A quick walk from Will and Strength’s graves brings visitors to the graves of Faith, Hope and Charity, three unidentified victims of 1969’s Hurricane Camille, another Category 5 storm that just before midnight on Aug. 17 made landfall down the road, near Bay St. Louis. The storm that claimed 172 lives joined Woodstock and the Apollo moon landing as the year’s memorable events.
Flat stones designate the resting places – and hold vital identifying facts about each of the three Caucasian women found that Aug. 20 in Pass Christian, across St. Louis Bay from Waveland. Faith, in her early ’60s, was recovered wearing a paisley pullover, weighed around 135 lbs., and stood approximately 5 foot 8. Hope, mid-30s, 135 lbs., wore a green-and-white blouse, green slacks and black rubber boots. Charity appeared to be between 40 and 50, was 5 foot 2 and weighed at what was registered as between 105 and 140. She wore four rings, including a wedding band.
In the 41 years since Camille, no husband, no family member, no friend, no casual acquaintance has come to claim any of the three, who initially did not have the blessing of Will and Strength’s comparatively swift naming and respectful final resting place. The women’s remains lay in unmarked graves for 10 years, members of the local Civil Defense squad, bearing flowers, their most steadfast visitors. In time, grass overtook the plots and the rudimentary funeral home signs were lost. In 1979, the squad began a movement to mark the graves properly and coastal residents were asked to donate a quarter each to a fund. A local monument company ultimately donated the stone, and the money raised instead now funds flowers delivered every Aug. 17.
The trio also wasn’t as fortunate as Will and Strength in the timing of their deaths. Thanks to modern science, five years after Katrina their brothers at the far edge of the cemetery have been identified and claimed.
A year after the men’s burials, Will’s grave gained a foot marker bearing the name James Blair. He was identified by DNA taken from the two sons of the 78-year-old man who was said to have holed up in his Pass Christian home during the storm. He was found not one block from that home, which was located on Hurricane Circle.
Coroner Hargrove remained committed to identifying the final unknown Harrison County victim, and 3 ½ years after Katrina he accomplished that, identifying 20-year-old Frank Jones of Gulfport via another DNA test. At the press conference at which he revealed Strength’s true name, Hargrove said, “The last 3 ½ years, I more or less lived and breathed the fact that we had one unknown victim of the storm.”
The actions of Jones’ family hadn’t helped. They’d seen him riding off on his bicycle the day of the storm, and subsequently assumed he’d been living in a shelter. More than a year had passed when they contacted the coroner, then provided incorrect information about the tattoos they recalled him having.
The remains of Frank Jones, discovered in Biloxi, were exhumed and reburied just upstate, in Jones County, next to his mother’s grave. Last Aug. 29 at Evergreen Cemetery, Hargrove placed a foot marker reading Frank Jones at the grave that had been Strength’s.
Nine Harrison County residents remain designated as missing. Three of those are presumed dead. Wherever the nine are, their real names are known. As are those of the men once called Will and Strength.
Faith, Hope and Charity await their day.
Suzanne Strempek Shea, a regular contributor to Obit, is the author of Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith.
I was not alone in that. Not one of my fellow mourners - make that not one of my fellow citizens on the planet – knew the identities of the individuals being laid to rest. But there 300 or so of us were, at 4 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2006, the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, standing in a sweltering semi-circle in Gulfport, Mississippi’s Evergreen Cemetery, paying both our first and final respects.
In the shade of a funeral home canopy rested matching metal caskets bearing the only two unidentified Harrison County victims of Hurricane Katrina. The devastating Category 5 storm had made landfall in nearby Waveland a year earlier, claiming the lives of approximately 1,833 souls, 238 of those in Mississippi. In all, 160 died in the state’s three most populated coastal counties – 146 (including three never recovered) in Harrison and Hancock Counties, and 14 (including two unidentified) in Jackson. A priest, a rabbi and a minister presided over the service comprising donations and volunteers from the county, its coroner’s office, five funeral homes and two mortuaries. Because their names were unknown, Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove gave them new ones: Will, for the will of the people to continue on, and Strength, representing the power of those who wished to rebuild.
The program distributed that afternoon noted that “Will was a white male, 60-70 years of age, 5’9” tall and 250 lbs. He had gray hair that was receding/balding. He was found wearing blue Sun N Sand Swim Trunks, size large, and they had gold trim at the top with stripes down the legs. His middle finger was partially amputated and his left ring finger was amputated at the tip.”
“Strength,” the program informed, “was a black male, 25-35 years of age, 5’9” tall and 200 lbs. He had black hair and had very prominent incisors. He had a tattoo on his left forearm that read, ‘Love Jones.’ He was found wearing blue denim pants, size 32/34, Old Navy brand, and a hooded sweatshirt, size XL, Old Navy Brand.”
In shorts, sundresses, dress shirts and ties, we stood on the dry grass as prayers were recited and readings were offered. I wore the one skirt I’d brought on the trip made to the Gulf Coast for a book I was researching on Christian churches nationwide. In between visiting one in Waveland the previous Sunday and another in Mobile, Alabama, the following one, I was spending the week volunteering to help Katrina victims through an effort based at yet another church, half an hour north. The anniversary of the storm was a designated day off from the land clearing, painting and tiling I’d been part of for a few days. The local Sun Herald gave a variety of ideas for commemorating the anniversary, including attending a park dedication, a blood drive and the reopening of a hurricane-damaged hospital. The note about the burial of two unknowns grabbed me - mostly because I worried no one would attend.
I found that many locals know their way to Evergreen Cemetery, and they venture there annually to commemorate the lives of a few more unknowns. A quick walk from Will and Strength’s graves brings visitors to the graves of Faith, Hope and Charity, three unidentified victims of 1969’s Hurricane Camille, another Category 5 storm that just before midnight on Aug. 17 made landfall down the road, near Bay St. Louis. The storm that claimed 172 lives joined Woodstock and the Apollo moon landing as the year’s memorable events.Flat stones designate the resting places – and hold vital identifying facts about each of the three Caucasian women found that Aug. 20 in Pass Christian, across St. Louis Bay from Waveland. Faith, in her early ’60s, was recovered wearing a paisley pullover, weighed around 135 lbs., and stood approximately 5 foot 8. Hope, mid-30s, 135 lbs., wore a green-and-white blouse, green slacks and black rubber boots. Charity appeared to be between 40 and 50, was 5 foot 2 and weighed at what was registered as between 105 and 140. She wore four rings, including a wedding band.
In the 41 years since Camille, no husband, no family member, no friend, no casual acquaintance has come to claim any of the three, who initially did not have the blessing of Will and Strength’s comparatively swift naming and respectful final resting place. The women’s remains lay in unmarked graves for 10 years, members of the local Civil Defense squad, bearing flowers, their most steadfast visitors. In time, grass overtook the plots and the rudimentary funeral home signs were lost. In 1979, the squad began a movement to mark the graves properly and coastal residents were asked to donate a quarter each to a fund. A local monument company ultimately donated the stone, and the money raised instead now funds flowers delivered every Aug. 17.
The trio also wasn’t as fortunate as Will and Strength in the timing of their deaths. Thanks to modern science, five years after Katrina their brothers at the far edge of the cemetery have been identified and claimed.
A year after the men’s burials, Will’s grave gained a foot marker bearing the name James Blair. He was identified by DNA taken from the two sons of the 78-year-old man who was said to have holed up in his Pass Christian home during the storm. He was found not one block from that home, which was located on Hurricane Circle.
Coroner Hargrove remained committed to identifying the final unknown Harrison County victim, and 3 ½ years after Katrina he accomplished that, identifying 20-year-old Frank Jones of Gulfport via another DNA test. At the press conference at which he revealed Strength’s true name, Hargrove said, “The last 3 ½ years, I more or less lived and breathed the fact that we had one unknown victim of the storm.”
The actions of Jones’ family hadn’t helped. They’d seen him riding off on his bicycle the day of the storm, and subsequently assumed he’d been living in a shelter. More than a year had passed when they contacted the coroner, then provided incorrect information about the tattoos they recalled him having.The remains of Frank Jones, discovered in Biloxi, were exhumed and reburied just upstate, in Jones County, next to his mother’s grave. Last Aug. 29 at Evergreen Cemetery, Hargrove placed a foot marker reading Frank Jones at the grave that had been Strength’s.
Nine Harrison County residents remain designated as missing. Three of those are presumed dead. Wherever the nine are, their real names are known. As are those of the men once called Will and Strength.
Faith, Hope and Charity await their day.
Suzanne Strempek Shea, a regular contributor to Obit, is the author of Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith.
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