The Lazarus Memorial Service was held Thursday, November 2, at Beal Memorial Cemetery in Fort Walton Beach to provide a final resting place for 40 unclaimed individuals who died in the county over the past year.
- The annual interfaith ceremony brings together clergy and community members to remember and bury those who have died without family or means for a proper burial.
Florida Statute requires that each county ensure the proper final disposition of indigent and unclaimed deceased persons in the respective counties. Each year, Okaloosa County receives an average of 35-40 individuals who die without family support or financial means to cover the cost of interment.
While the County does coordinate with funeral homes and medical examiner for properly processing the indigent deceased, the burial of the individuals is handled respectfully by the local faith based community.
In her opening remarks, Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel emphasized the diversity of stories represented by the 40 being memorialized.
“We have 40 individuals who will be placed in their final resting place. Their stories are as varied as the lives of those of you who are here today,” she said. “Our youngest today is a newborn baby boy delivered at a local hospital. Our oldest is a 104 year old woman who outlived her family and died alone in a nursing home.”
The cremated remains were each held in a box bearing the deceased’s name before being placed in green velvet bags for the outdoor ceremony.
Rev. Mark Broadhead emphasized in his sermon that while the circumstances of the deceased may have been different, each was a beloved child of God.
- “We never really know what a person has gone through in life – what horrors, difficulties, hardships, abuses,” he said. “Today we have the privilege of remembering and giving honor to those who may have been abandoned, abused, forgotten.”
Broadhead went on to reflect on the innocence of children and how as adults, people can be quick to judge others based on outward appearances.
“It’s rarely the intention of a person to say, ‘I want to wind up in this situation in life,'” he said. “I’ve never heard a child say that I want to be addicted to chemicals. I’ve never heard a child say that I want to be forgotten when I grow old.”
Instead, Broadhead emphasized that “when a child is born, they want to remember to be loved, to be cared for, to be held in the loving and comforting embrace of those who love them. And even in our advanced years, that longing remains.”
The Lazarus Service involves area clergy from multiple denominations who spend the year planning the event, held annually on Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day. In addition to Ketchel and Broadhead, participants this year included choir groups from local churches and staff from Emerald Coast Funeral Home who assisted in preparing the memorial.
- Dignitaries and elected officials attended the ceremony at Beal Memorial Cemetery, along with many members of the local communities.
The names and dates of death for those interred are recorded in the cemetery’s Book of Remembrance. Okaloosa County began the Lazarus Service in 2016 and has since buried over 800 unclaimed individuals.
Ketchel noted in her remarks that the initiative was recognized for best practices by the Florida Association of Counties, with other counties implementing similar memorial ceremonies inspired by Okaloosa’s model.
“Okaloosa County has found a compassionate and dignified way to bury these invisible members of our society,” she said. “Area clergy from every denomination come together throughout the year to plan for an ecumenical service to provide a dignified burial in Beal Cemetery.”
The Lazarus Service project aligns with the Catholic Church’s Corporal Works of Mercy, which Ketchel highlighted include burying the dead – “the one that cannot be repaid.”
“However, we are making friends for eternity in heaven,” she said.
Ketchel expressed hope that those gathered would leave with “a quiet feeling of having done something right. That cannot be repaid in this world.”
The 38 individuals memorialized at the 2023 Lazarus Service were:
- Randall Anderson, 66
- Michael Barrows, 51
- Kimberly Bennett, 54
- Troy Blankenship, 54
- Michael Brewer, 56
- Jan Brick, 59
- Anna Campbell, 104
- James Cordes, 64
- Anthony Day, 57
- Richard Dean, 59
- Ronald Dean, 66
- Kristian Floyd, 47
- Mark Gatton, 65
- Kami Giuliani, 34
- Robert Shawn Gray, 40
- Laura Louise Green, 49
- Frank Cain Hall, 35
- Susan Hedler, 71
- Mary Holcomb, 88
- William Howard Jr., 60
- David Johnson, age unknown
- Johnson family member, age unknown
- Geraldine Kettel, 93
- Donald Lee King Jr., 50
- Ruth Ann Liotta, 62
- David W. Parks, 86
- Antonio Pedigo, 65
- Lorra Lee Polk, 56
- Donna Salmans, 75
- Richard Shambo, 74
- David Starks, 51
- Patricia Strait, 83
- Richard Sweet, 68
- Willis Lee Tabor, 75
- Baby boy Tidwell, stillborn
- Gerald Turner, 46
- Arthur Wentworth, 60
- Deborah White, 67
- Ralph T. Wolfe, 58
- Patricia Ann Woodruff, 84
