Family has casket exhumed at Grandview | Archives | madisoncourier.com

CASKET EXHUMED: Melissa Warner puts her arm around her mother, Linda Deaton, as the two inspect the casket of Deaton’s late husband, Willie Deaton. The casket was exhumed from the Veteran’s Garden at Grandview Memorial Gardens on Friday. It was found that the coffin had been partly underwater, though the seal was still intact. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie)

Water had corroded the copper sides of the coffin, and mud blocked the three drain holes in the bottom of the concrete grave liner. The casket itself, however, seemed to have remained watertight.

"They're fortunate that they bought a good casket," said Rodney Nay, co-owner of Morgan & Nay Funeral Centre.

The problem, once again, wasn't the casket but the cemetery, as grave No. 27 was removed from Grandview Memorial Gardens on Friday morning after recent flooding concerns.

"We bought a crypt, and we got a lawn vault, which is basically a glorified septic tank," Melissa Warner said after watching her father's casket removed from the ground. Her father, Willie Deaton, was buried at Grandview in 1983.

The Deaton family decided to reinter Deaton after Warner came to place flowers on his grave and noticed that another crypt, which had already been relocated, had filled with muddy water. The family estimated the cost of reintering the casket to be $3,000.

"My kids wouldn't put me there," said Linda Deaton, wife of the deceased. "I spent my IRA to pay for (the reinterment). Now I might have to work until full retirement."

Nay estimated that six or seven more reinterments have also been scheduled. Many families have paid for plots in advance and must now save money to find a new place of burial, he said.

Willie Deaton's coffin was taken to the Morgan & Nay Funeral Centre for cleaning before it was reintered at noon Friday at Bethany Cemetery. Since the casket was still sealed at exhumation, it was not opened before reburial.

A second class-action lawsuit involving Grandview was filed Friday in Jefferson Circuit Court.

For now, Deaton's family hopes that their loved one will be able to finally rest in peace.

"We just feel more comfortable that it's dry where he'll be," Warner said.

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