Help Bury WWII Veteran

Help us put a World War II Veteran, whose ashes were lost for 20 years, to rest!

 

 

 

 

Lewis Hanson Cook was our great uncle. He was an avid radioman and was in the Naval Reserve when WWII began. He spent much of his enlistment stationed at the Pearl Harbor Naval Air Station, attaining the rank of Aviation Radioman First Class before being honorably discharged in 1944 for medical reasons. He died on December 6th 1999, and those in charge of his body after his death were mistakenly told there were no living relatives. Since Uncle Lew died with many debts, no will, and a false report of no living relatives, he was destined to be cremated and added to the communal grave for the unclaimed.

 

When Uncle Lew’s death notice was published in the paper, his niece, Nancy Howland-Regier, saw it and rushed down to the funeral home where he had been sent to find out what had happened to his body and to notify them that he did have living relatives. They told her that he had been cremated, but that there was no recorded interment location and could give her no further information. And so Lewis’s family resolved themselves that their loved one was lost to them forever … until the ‘fateful’ day, over 20 years later, in October 2021, when the Head Preservation Architect at the Nebraska Capitol Building, Matthew Hansen, contacted Lewis’s family for information about some antique glass negatives that had been donated to them.

 

In the midst of researching these glass negatives taken by Lewis’s father in the early 1900s, Mr. Hansen also learned of our family mystery concerning what had happened to Lewis after he died. And owing to the meticulous dedication, hard work, and perseverance of Mr. Hansen, Lewis’s remains were discovered ‘buried’ metaphorically in the basement of the funeral home. He quickly notified the family, and the next day out Aunt Nancy rushed down to pick up the lost ashes of Lewis Hanson Cook, just as she had intended to do over 20 years ago.

 

The funeral home associates were extremely helpful and explained how this never, ever happens and is absolutely not protocol. In fact they described how once a year, every year they go through this section of storage and carefully make sure everything is completed and tidied up. But somehow for 20 years Lewis’s ashes remained safely tucked away and hidden until the day when Mr. Hansen called to learn more about where Lewis’s remains had gone and where they had been buried.

 

Though there is no way to know for sure now, the fact that Uncle Lew’s ashes were ‘lost’ and unseen for all those years may have actually been the very thing that saved him from being buried in that communal pauper’s grave which is normally the case for those who die without means or known family. And incredibly and quite fittingly the day Aunt Nancy just happened to pick up Uncle Lew’s ashes was 11.11.21 – Veterans’ Day!

And now we want to give Uncle Lew the special burial he deserves to finally rest in peace.  His parents, Mattie  and Albra , and grandparents, Helen  and Bradford  are all buried in the Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, NE, as well as the man Lewis was named after, Pvt Lewis P Hanson.  And so Wyuka would definitely be a very fitting resting place for Uncle Lew.

However, another very fitting, while less expensive, home for Lewis is next to his sister and brother-in-law, Mary Helen  and James Howland  in the Juniata Cemetery.  So depending on family logistics and the funds we are able to raise, we would like to bury Lewis in one of these two places.

Regardless of where he is finally buried, all of the funds raised will go directly to the cost of the funeral, burial, headstone, and family gathering/service to honor him. 

 

Thank you very much for any support you can give,

Lewis’s family.