Woman's casket placed in wrong grave

By Mike Moore
Journal Times

Tuesday, October 7, 2008 11:26 AM CDT

RACINE — For nine months, Juanita and Henry Hampton drove up from Chicago to visit the spot on the north end of Graceland Cemetery where Juanita’s sister was buried.

The couple said they got a shock the other week when they learned Mary I. Jeffries’ casket had been placed in someone else’s grave. The correct plot was a few hundred yards away.

No one might have noticed, except that a headstone the couple purchased for Jeffries was recently completed and delivered to the plot Jeffries was assigned, Henry Hampton said. The makers of the headstone passed along a picture of it in place, and the couple said the setting didn’t look familiar.

Cemetery officials initially assured Henry Hampton everything was correct, he said, but he asked them to open the vault underneath Jeffries’ headstone and identify the casket. They found a white one.

“And my sister-in-law’s casket was blue,” Henry Hampton said.

The couple made the trip to Racine with other family members to see that the casket was moved to the correct spot. The casket that had been in Jeffries’ plot was moved to the site they had been visiting all of those months, the Hamptons said.

The headstone nearest to that plot was engraved with the names Robert and Artelia Collins. According to Journal Times obituary records, Artelia Collins’ burial was scheduled Dec. 21, the same day as Jeffries’. That probably led to the mix-up, the Hamptons said.

Jeffries lived in Sturtevant and was well-known in the community through years of owning the House of Beauty salon, Juanita Hampton said. The sisters were close and talked daily.

“She wanted me to take care of her,” Juanita Hampton said.

Cemetery representatives apologized and waived the fee for excavating the vault and casket, Henry Hampton said. With the mix-up fixed, the couple said they will sleep better.

“I have a peace of mind that she’s where she’s supposed to be,” Juanita Hampton said.

Cemetery supervisor Steve Bedard said he was not authorized to speak and asked for questions to be submitted in writing. A list of questions was faxed Thursday, asking if similar problems have been encountered with other graves and if the second family was notified of any mix-up.

As of Monday evening, Bedard had not responded to those questions.

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