Jennings Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 (edited) My mother's side of the family is... to put it politely... an "interesting" group of people. Suffice it to say, if you think scandal and infamy are new things, rest assured they're not. One of my great-grandmother's brothers was Robert Lee (wrong middle initial here) Taber. He was born in 1870 in Rutherford County, NC and died in April of 1935 at the Old Soldiers' Home in Johnson City, Tennessee. He was a veteran of the Spanish American war. He essentially disappeared from the family around the turn of the last century, and died penniless and with no next of kin (despite having had a wife and several children). I had a *wonderful* conversation with the acting director of the Mountain Home National Cemetery this afternoon, and she said that since he lived at the facility when he died, and apparently had no known (to them at the time) living relatives, it's likely that the limited information on his headstone came from someone who knew him there. The grave registration didn't have a date of birth (which my mother does have), so no dates were engraved on his headstone. Much to my astonishment, the VA is willing to engrave the dates if we provide them with reliable (or as reliable as possible) information - free of charge! She said they may even be able to change the "E" to an "L" to correct his middle initial. To the best of our knowledge, it's very likely that no member of Robert Taber's family has ever visited his grave, making me the first blood relative ever to do so in just over 80 years he's lain there. And to anyone who complains about government bureaucrats, I will just say that some of them, like Denise at Mountain Home, are THE BEST!! The cemetery is absolutely immaculately maintained, and a credit to all the employees who make that happen. The fact that this veteran has been dead for over 80 years didn't make the first bit of difference to anyone I spoke to today. Way to go! Rest in peace Uncle Rob. Edited May 7, 2015 by Jennings Quote Link to post Share on other sites
warthoglvr Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 (edited) yeah, that is VERY cool. Great story. no disrespect, but the initials "SP.AM.WAR" did make me chuckle, for some reason.... Edited May 7, 2015 by warthoglvr Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jennings Posted May 7, 2015 Author Share Posted May 7, 2015 Consider that Spam the 'meat' didn't even exist when this was done! Now we're two full meanings away from that :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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