Adventures in Grave Hunting by Lisa Burks

Tombstone Tuesday ~ July 27, 2010

During a public visitation in May, one of my  fellow Grand View Memorial Park volunteers assisted an elderly gentleman who was having trouble locating the grave site of his wife, who was buried there in 2002.

Flash forward just a few weeks.

During a conversation with the cemetery's court-approved funeral director regarding new burials there, the same volunteer (who wishes to remain anonymous in this story) discovered that the gentleman she assisted was on the list. 

Paul Chester Nelson passed away on June 6 (which happened to be another court-approved visitation day) at the age of 91. He was subsequently interred beside his wife Pamela in section M, where he had recently visited.

Rest in peace, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson ~ together forever now.

A note about the current state of the grounds at Grand View:

The court has assigned $500,000 in insurance monies awarded in a recently settled class action suit to be used to install a new underground watering system. A landscape architect is currently designing that project which is scheduled to begin in late August.

In the meantime, the grounds have not been watered and grass not cut, intentionally, in preparation for mass vegetation removal, which will be more easily accomplished when everything is dry.

Once removed down to the dirt, trenches will be strategically dug between headstones to lay the piping. The grounds will be seeded and watered after the system is installed.

Volunteers needed at Grand View this Sunday

Grand View Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif., will be opened to the public over the Memorial Day weekend, on Sunday, May 25, from noon-4 p.m., and attorneys coordinating the event are seeking volunteers to help ensure the day runs smoothly.

For more details, please read my Valley News report.

Long-await clean up under way at Grand View

By Lisa Burks
VALLEYNEWS.COM

Things are really cracking over a Grand View Memorial Park these days - namely the tree branches - as work crews busily cut and grind dead and dying timber.

The long-awaited clean up of the unkempt grounds began in late December to the tune of a reported $105,400, funded by cemetery monies. Additionally, an above-ground water system has been installed to thwart the dry conditions.

I stopped by Grand View this morning to take photos of the work in progress. While I wasn't allowed on the property, I was able to capture some of the work being done by poking my camera through the front iron gates and over the brick walls. See the entire album here on Flickr.

A progress report on the improvements is expected to be presented at the next court status conference hearing on February 6.

For further details, be sure to visit my website, GrandViewMemorialPark.info, where I've been logging all local media coverage of the story.

Hepburn family named in Grand View lawsuit

(See my ValleyNews.com blog for additional information about the Hepburns of Grand View.)

Cemetery suit is broadened
Attorneys allege that the prior operators of the Grand View Memorial Park resold burial plots.

By Anthony Kim
Glendale News Press
Published Thursday, May 3, 2007 10:50 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES — Until recently, the lawsuit against Grand View Memorial Park has focused mostly on Marsha Lee Howard, the deceased former owner of the now parched and shuttered Glendale cemetery.

But attorneys suing the cemetery have widened their scope by bringing into the lawsuit members of the Hepburn family, who ran the cemetery for nearly six decades before Howard.

The former owners of the city's oldest cemetery are now defendants in the lawsuit, newly added targets for the claims of malpractice and negligence against the cemetery's owners and operators.

Grand View plot may have been double sold

Workers preparing for a burial at the park find a vault in a gravesite that should have been empty.

By ANTHONY KIM
Glendale News Press

GLENDALE — While preparing for a burial at Grand View Memorial Park on Monday, funeral workers found signs of an existing casket in the plot.

The burial, which was scheduled for Tuesday, was canceled, adding force to claims of malpractice and negligence made by people suing the Glendale cemetery.

"It was one of the most … upsetting things I've done in a long time, to go tell that family that they couldn't put their father in that grave," said Paul Ayers, an attorney representing people suing the cemetery.

The discovery Monday of what attorneys say appear to be a plot that was double-sold was the latest in a string of scandals at Glendale's oldest cemetery.

Cemetery records to be reviewed

Attorneys for those suing Grand View Memorial Park soon will get a look at the park's documents.

By ANTHONY KIM
Glendale News Press

LOS ANGELES — Attorneys in the civil lawsuits against Grand View Memorial Park soon will be able to review critical burial records seized from the beleaguered Glendale cemetery more than a year ago.

The records — which include cemetery contracts, plot cards and copies of death certificates — arrived at a document depository in the City of Commerce on Tuesday, said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for the state's Attorney General's office.

"The documents are key to understanding the cemetery's operations and the problems with the cemetery's operations," said attorney Paul Ayers, who represents many who are filing suit against the cemetery. "I'm looking forward to seeing them."

Woman's burial ordered at Grand View

Though remains have been placed in mausoleum, this marks first grave since mid-2006.

By ANTHONY KIM
Glendale News-Press

LOS ANGELES — Esther Lohr's final resting place will be with her husband in Grand View Memorial Park, the Glendale cemetery that has been the center of legal battles since 2005.

Lohr, who was buried in Forest Lawn cemetery in Glendale in November, will be exhumed and reburied at the Grand View cemetery within two weeks, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anthony H. Mohr ordered on Wednesday.

Judge allows family to put 92-year-old into her crypt

By EUGENE TONG, Staff Writer
LA Daily News

GLENDALE - When the end came, Geneva Hegemier had arranged to spend eternity beside her parents and grandparents in the family crypt at Grand View Memorial Park.

But fulfilling her last wishes wasn't easy for her survivors because Grand View has been mired in financial and legal problems over the past year.

Grand View interment ordered

Lawyers continue to work on a deal that will wider usage at the troubled park, closed since 2005.

By ANTHONY KIM, Staff Writer
Glendale News-Press

LOS ANGELES -  Geneva Hegemier's remains will be the first to be interred at Grand View Memorial Park since the beleaguered cemetery came under legal troubles more than a year ago.

In a crowded Los Angeles Superior Court hearing Wednesday, Judge Anthony J. Mohr ordered that Hegemier, who died on Dec. 13 at 92, be placed in a Grand View mausoleum at 2 p.m. on Friday. But since the cemetery is the center of legal battle, contingencies might arise that could postpone the interment, said Brent Crawford, co-owner of Kiefer & Eyerick Mortuary Inc., the mortuary appointed to handle the interment.

Cemetery may open for some

Two sides have two weeks in which to come up with plan for individuals who already own plots.

By ANTHONY KIM, Staff Writer
Glendale News-Press

LOS ANGELES — Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr gave attorneys in the Grand View Memorial Park civil case two weeks on Friday to flesh out protocols that would allow deceased persons with previously purchased plots to be buried at the cemetery, which remains closed.