Burial

There's a growing controversy among conservatives over whether the United States was correct in giving terrorist leader Osama bin Laden a proper, dignified Islamic burial at sea.  White House spokesman Jay Carney said bin Laden's burial was "done in performance with Islamic precepts and practices. The deceased body was washed and placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag, a military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker.

A gal with a meat cleaver embedded in her head. A living skeleton. Lots of witches, with pointy hats and long noses. And plenty of guys dressed like your host for the evening, the estimable author and, though dead for 162 years, favorite son of old Baltimore, Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. Such was the scene Sunday night at the Westminster Hall and Burying Grounds. Hundreds gathered to tour the centuries-old cemetery and catacombs, be entertained by one of its most famous residents — that would be Poe, buried here after dying in Baltimore under still-unexplained circumstances in 1849 — and, not coincidentally, do their part to help the home he once lived in remain open as a museum and tourist attraction.

The first recorded interment at the Little Falls Meeting of Friends cemetery was held on Oct. 18, 1768, when Alice Anna Webster Bond was buried. There may have been earlier burials, including that of William Wilson, a leader who died in 1753. Few early records can be found for the cemetery next to the meeting house. Because Friends considered formal monuments to be ostentatious, graves were marked with simple field stones or left unmarked. After restrictions on gravestones were lifted, some grave sites were marked with modern monuments.

For years, St. Paul's Cemetery, a Victorian city of the dead on a knoll in a remote corner of Druid Hill Park, was nothing more than a nearly forgotten, weed-choked, overgrown burial ground that had been subjected to mindless vandalism through the decades. Today, it's brimming with new life as volunteers and members of Martini Lutheran Church man humming lawn mowers and screaming chainsaws as they cut grass and remove felled trees. Their common goal is to restore the cemetery, which dates to 1854, to its former glory.

The family of a 19-year-old Gambrills man who was fatally shot Thursday night after an argument outside a Millersville bar is trying to raise money for his burial, his aunt said yesterday.Jeffrey Watson was shot outside Gus' Getaway on Veterans Highway after being chased by a man he and some friends had argued with at another bar, county police said.Shot once in the torso, Watson was pronounced dead a short time later at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.Police were searching yesterday for Nathan Genorris Brown III, 25, of the first block of Nancy Ave. in Millersville, who has been charged in an arrest warrant with first-degree murder and assault with intent to murder.

SHAME. SHAME. SHAME! That's what Republicans in Congress and their co-conspirators on talk radio angrily shouted at the Clinton administration last week. Why, the dastardly cads in the White House had been selling hard-to-come-by burial plots at Arlington National Cemetery -- a military shrine -- to campaign donors!Shame, indeed. But not on President Clinton or Army Secretary Togo D. West, who had done nothing wrong. The shame belongs to those very Republicans who had wrapped themselves in ersatz patriotism to whip up veterans groups against the White House.

Reform of the state's cemetery industry appears more likely after a surprisingly cordial hearing before the House Economic Matters Committee yesterday in Annapolis.Consumer advocates and cemetery owners voiced support for bills that would establish a task force to investigate mortuaries and cemeteries and establish a state board with the power to license graveyard operators.The bills, offered by Del. Dan K. Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat, and Del. Joan B. Pitkin, a Prince George's County Democrat, also picked up support from the Maryland attorney general's office.

Archaeologists digging in one of their favorite kinds of pits -- a trash cellar -- figured its mix of coins, pottery shards and pipe- stems would tell them about one of the earliest European settlements along the Chesapeake Bay. But a unique and mysterious discovery along a cellar wall promises to be the most telling of all, offering insights into the difficulty of forging a new life in the New World settlement of Providence in the 1600s. "We did not expect to find this dead guy," said Anne Arundel County archaeologist Al Luckenbach.

CALVERTON, N.Y. - The young private knelt in front of the somber woman and held out one of the most poignant expressions of honor for a fallen American warrior - the Stars and Stripes, folded with military precision into a neat triangle. "On behalf of the president of the United States, the governor of New York and a grateful nation, I present this flag as a token of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one," Pfc. Jobanka Nolasco said as she presented the flag to Mechelle Jackson during the service last week in an outdoor chapel at Calverton National Cemetery.

Donald Francis Duncan loved the sea as a kid growing up in California and he loved it throughout his adult life, when he sailed on boats with names such as the Odyssey and Vaya - Spanish for "go." Now, in death, he won't be separated from the water he so loved. Yesterday, as his two daughters clung to each other and cried, an artificial reef containing his ashes was lowered by crane into the gray-green waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The rough-hewn concrete structures, which resemble a giant Whiffle ball, are intended to help restore the health of the bay by providing a coral-like habitat for fish and other sea life.

Singe marks still scar the wall of the Canton grocery store where Stanislaw Ptak spent his final night outside. The homeless man died six months ago after he accidentally set himself on fire while lighting a cigarette. The rowhouse on Pitcher Street where Matthew Jon Ward was found dead of hypothermia is still vacant and boarded. He died eight years ago after a long, tortuous struggle to overcome an addiction to drugs. Ptak and Ward are like hundreds of people who every year — whether by design or circumstance — had their bodies turned over or given to the state anatomy board for science.

There's a growing controversy among conservatives over whether the United States was correct in giving terrorist leader Osama bin Laden a proper, dignified Islamic burial at sea.  White House spokesman Jay Carney said bin Laden's burial was "done in performance with Islamic precepts and practices. The deceased body was washed and placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag, a military officer read prepared religious remarks, which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker.

Why has President Obama acted so quickly to bury Osama bin Laden's body at sea? Americans should want the world, as well as bin Laden's fanatical followers, to see actual proof of his death. Couldn't the president have presented photographs of the body before burying it secretly? After 10 years of hunting for bin Laden, what was the rush? Barry Apple, Woodlawn

After more than a week of hacking away at underbrush and weedy trees, landscape workers have tamed nearly 30 years of neglect at one of Baltimore's oldest Roman Catholic cemeteries. The 7-acre St. Vincent DePaul Cemetery, which is surrounded by Clifton Park, has emerged from its first clean-up since it officially closed in the 1980s. Workers cleared away tall grasses, unruly trees and nearly 5 tons of debris around four sections of askew grave markers and upturned headstones.

By George Diaz, Tribune Newspapers A good man died recently. To his former teammates with the Orioles, Mike Cuellar was a carefree, superstitious soul who needed to wear the same cap on days that he pitched. Perhaps that's where he found the magic in that nasty screwball. To Cuban-Americans, he was part of the country's rich baseball legacy from his days as a pitcher with the Havana Sugar Kings. To fans from Baltimore to Central Florida, he was a humble guy who always had time for a handshake and a smile.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide on the outer limits of free-speech protection for public protests and to rule on whether the family of a dead Maryland Marine can sue religious protesters who picketed near his funeral with signs that said, "Thank God for dead soldiers." The court's action is the latest twist in a long legal battle that arose out of a funeral in Westminster. The case triggered a multimillion-dollar damage award and attracted national media attention. A federal jury in Baltimore awarded $11 million to Albert Snyder, whose son Matthew was killed in Iraq in March 2006.

ATHENS, Greece -- The bureaucratic notice came by mail, reminding the family that its three-year lease on the burial plot was expiring. The family was advised to contact the Athens First Cemetery to arrange for exhumation of the deceased.Lucas Zamanos, a retired banker, answered the summons expecting something more dignified for his late father-in-law than the scene that ensued -- a scene still etched in his mind seven years later.A cemetery worker wearing a surgical mask dug up the grave and, finding the body not fully decomposed, stood on it and pried it from the coffin piece by piece.

QUETTA, Pakistan - On the rocky brown hill known as the Shining Mountain of the Quran, a new shipment has arrived. About 200 sacks are piled high in the bright morning sunlight, and each contains about 60 worn-out copies of Islam's holiest book. They were delivered by truck from all corners of Pakistan. Some of the Qurans will be repaired and returned to the mosques and religious schools that sent them. But most will remain here, destined for burial in one of the 30 room-sized caves or the 1,600 feet of narrow tunnels carved into the rock.

Relatives of an 11-year-old girl who died after police say she was abducted by a registered sex offender will not have to pay for her funeral or burial. John Holloway of Holloway Funeral Home in Salisbury told WBOC-TV that local donors have paid for the funeral of Sarah Haley Foxwell. Holloway says the donors want to remain anonymous. No date has been set for the memorial service. Sarah was abducted from her home Tuesday night. Her body was found on Christmas Day after a search that included more than 3,000 volunteers.