A proper resting place for Arena

My great-great grandmother, Arena Veal, died in 1924 at 27 years old—the same age I am now. Her death certificate lists “lobar pneumonia” as the cause, and she left several children behind, including my 2-year-old great-grandmother.

Although we knew where she died, no one in my family seemed to know where Arena was buried. But, that made sense to me when I considered the fact that almost no one in the family was alive yet at the time of her funeral.

Last year I started doing my own research, calling around to my city’s historic cemeteries. Akron, Ohio was very segregated in the 1920s (it was considered to be the nation’s Ku Klux Klan capital at the time), and I was worried I would never find her. But I discovered that she was buried nearby in a cemetery started by the German Reformed Church—the first in the city to allow Black burials.


For almost one hundred years, her gravesite has been unmarked and forgotten, and I want to change that. I want her to know that she’s loved and cherished. And I would be so grateful if you could help me purchase a headstone for my beloved ancestor.