‘Never alone’: Nonprofit to bury nearly 200 unclaimed cremated remains in Iowa
By Ben Kaplan
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DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — Nearly 200 central Iowans whose cremated remains were left unclaimed after they died will soon be laid to rest.
The Final Salute, a nonprofit that works to identify and bury unclaimed veterans, is responsible for the upcoming sendoff.
“We don’t pick out the veterans and say, hey, we’re just going to honor them. We take everybody,” Final Salute founder Lanae Strovers told KCCI.
This isn’t the first time Final Salute has done this.
In 2019, they buried nearly 90 civilian adults. In 2024, there were dozens of unclaimed children who were laid to rest. These are all individuals Dennis Allen of the Final Salute says they worked to identify and learn as much as they could about their lives.
“If you look at a headstone, a lot of times you see a birth year and then a dash and then a death year. And so I always go back and think about the dash. That’s their life,” Allen said.
They’ve learned a lot.
“There are doctors and nurses and teachers and people that worked in construction, in the railroad, and farming,” Strovers said.
Some are even related.
“We have a father and son. We have a mother and daughter. We have siblings,” Strovers said.
Over the last several years, multiple central Iowa funeral homes and the Polk County Medical Examiner’s Office have handed over their cremated remains.
And on April 25, they will be buried at Avon Cemetery together.
“They’ve been family together at Hamilton’s and Iles. They’ll be a family in there,” Allen said.
Never alone.
Never forgotten.
The burial will take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 25. Strovers told KCCI that anyone who would like to be part of the procession beforehand should meet in the parking lot of the Southridge Mall at 9:15 a.m.
To find out more, visit the Final Salute on Facebook.
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