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If bill is signed, funeral homes could release long-held ashes

By DENNIS YUSKO AND SARAH HINMAN RYAN, Staff writers
First published in print: Sunday, July 4, 2010

Several hundred New York veterans who died alone and were never buried may finally be laid to rest under legislation approved by the state Assembly and Senate and now headed to the governor’s desk this Independence Day.

Cremated ashes of service members from World War I to the Vietnam era were never interred across the state because the vets had no known family members to claim them. The remains of the vets, who likely fell on hard times, have languished with those of an untold number of civilians in the back rooms of New York funeral homes and crematoriums for decades.

But veterans groups in recent years have pressed for access to the remains so they can provide proper funerals for the vets. The Missing in America Project, formed in 2006 after 21 deceased vets were found and buried in Idaho, coordinates full military funerals for the “forgotten” veterans.
But the project’s efforts in New York are being stifled by state privacy laws that forbid funeral home directors from investigating the deceased person’s veteran status without approval from next of kin or an authorized agent. As well, state law prohibits funeral directors from handing over remains of a veteran to non-family unless the veteran had signed a waiver.

The Veterans Recovery Program in New York has buried 13 veterans with full military honors, including seven in the Capital Region who gave authorization, but identifying the additional hundreds is not permitted under the state health law.

“New York state right now is the most restrictive state involved in this privacy issue,” said Bill Schaaf of Troy, who leads the Missing in America Project in New York.
Funeral directors in the state cannot divulge personal background information on any of the deceased in their possession, even if they know they belong to a retired military person. Critics say that raises the risk that those who served or fought under the American flag could be buried in “pauper graves” rather than a national cemetery as is their right.

Schaaf, 63, worked with the New York State Funeral Directors Association on behalf of its 3,500 members and legislative leaders earlier this year to have the privacy laws changed.

Bills passed last month in the state Assembly and Senate would allow funeral home owners to release cremains of former military personnel to such sanctioned veterans service organizations as the Missing in America Project, and check a decedent’s veteran status with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and local veterans service agencies. The legislation would discharge funeral directors of any legal responsibility if a buried veteran’s relative appeared and objected to the funeral.
The new law would not cost the state money. Veterans funerals in national cemeteries are paid for with federal monies, while veterans groups and the estate of the decedent would pay for other “reasonable expenses.” If signed by the governor, the law would take effect Nov. 11 — Veterans Day.
No state or federal agency tracks how many Americans or New Yorkers have unburied remains in the custody of funeral homes, nor the number of veterans eligible for burial.

Navy veteran Earle Rosenthal of Cheektowaga, Erie County, estimates that the ashes of 300 to 1,000 veterans are now in funeral homes in eight western New York counties. The number is thought to be much higher in the New York City area. Schaaf declined to estimate how many are in the Capital Region, but he says the number nationwide is in the tens of thousands.

Rosenthal, 78, also worked to overturn the privacy laws. “These are American veterans. They have no business sitting in tin cans and cigar boxes,” he said.
It is not uncommon for longtime funeral homes to have old cremains in their care. After 120 days of holding unclaimed ashes, funeral directors can bury or scatter them at sea. But many keep the ashes, hoping that a family member turns up, or state privacy laws change.
Many funeral homes are reluctant to discuss unclaimed remains for fear that the public doesn’t understand state law or of entering what can be a legal quagmire. Also, the nation’s treatment of veterans’ remains is unusual.

“In other countries around the world, I have never been confronted with the problem of unclaimed cremains of veterans,” Henry J. Keizer, secretary general of the International Cremation Federation in the Netherlands said in an e-mail.

At the William J. Burke & Sons Funeral Home, the cremains of two veterans sat among the cremains of 38 other unclaimed persons on an office book shelf for 15 years until Schaaf and the Patriotic Guard Riders buried them last month at Saratoga National Cemetery. The funeral home’s collection of ashes date back to World War II. The cremains are kept in clear plastic bags, and stored in cardboard boxes, cans and urns. Each contains the name of a person and their date of death.
One of the veterans from Burke who was buried was Hans Hanson, an Army technician who had fought in Germany during World War II. Hanson died in Clifton Park without family or friends at age 74. He was cremated and his ashes were kept at the funeral home without the knowledge of his surviving family.
Two of Hanson’s nephews found about the location of his ashes and came to his funeral after hearing about it through news reports.

The Flynn Brothers Funeral Home in Schuylerville also worked with Schaaf to bury veterans. It still has in its custody cremains from a veteran from downstate who died in the 1960s.

Unclaimed cremains are less of an issue in modern times because of information technology, especially improvements made in keeping family and funeral records, Schaaf said.

This veterans cremains legislation was introduced by Sen. Kevin Parker, D-Brooklyn, in February and shepherded through the state Assembly by William Magnarelli, D-Syracuse, chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee.

It follows similar laws passed in New Jersey, Montana and other states. It was developed as a companion to another bill governing cemeteries sponsored by Parker and Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Westchester County, chairman of the Corporations Committee.

“I think the new statue is long overdue,” Burke funeral director Mark Phillips said.

If Gov. David Paterson signs the legislation, the state would have one of the most comprehensive tools to bury unclaimed vets in the nation, said Randy McCullough, deputy executive director of the New York State Funeral Directors Association.
Brodsky said the bills have a spiritual element.

“Lincoln coined the phrase that soldiers ‘gave the last full measure of devotion.’ In some sense, these ceremonies are our way of recognizing and returning this last full measure of devotion,” Brodsky said.

Nephew’s determination, newspaper story uncovers fate of “Uncle Fred,” WWII fighter who will be laid to rest today

By DENNIS YUSKO AND SARAH HINMAN RYAN, Staff writers
First published in print: Friday, June 11, 2010
Saratoga Springs

Hans Frederick Hanson is found.
Family members who had no idea that the World War II soldier died 15 years ago in Clifton Park are attending his funeral today at Saratoga National Cemetery after a story about his unclaimed remains was published this week in the Times Union. As it turns out, the veteran may have died without much, but he was never forgotten.

In a story littered with coincidences, Hanson’s nephew, Robert Hanson of Pittsburgh, said he had searched the paper’s website and Internet for years for information about his lost uncle, and had logged on to timesunion.com just hours before the paper’s research director informed him about his uncle’s burial.

“I was just flabbergasted,” Robert Hanson said. “It’s either an incredible coincidence beyond belief or divine intervention.”

Before this week, little was known about Hans Hanson, an ex-soldier from the Bronx who died without family or friends at age 74. With no one to bury him, the Army technician’s ashes were kept with the remains of dozens of other unclaimed persons, including six vets, in the William J. Burke & Sons Funeral Home.

But Hanson’s status changed from unclaimed to found Tuesday. That’s when Robert Hanson learned that vets with the state’s Missing in America Project were carrying the remains of his uncle and two other World War II soldiers to the cemetery for a funeral with full military honors.

Simultaneously finding “Uncle Fred,” as Robert Hanson knew him, and hearing what people who didn’t know his uncle had planned overwhelmed Robert Hanson. The retired engineer and family genealogist had wanted to know for years what happened to the World War II vet and New York City cab driver. Though he and his brother Ronald could now dictate where to lay their uncle to rest, Robert Hanson said he not only supports today’s 10 a.m. ceremony, but plans to attend it with Ronald.

Army veteran Bill Schaaf, who coordinated Hans Hanson’s burial with the Patriot Guard Riders, also is blown away by the discovery of Hans Hanson’s next of kin — and with one detail in particular. Strangely, the Troy man said that he frequently uses the term “Uncle Fred” as a generic reference to vets when contacting funeral homes to identify unclaimed remains. Now, he’s got a real Uncle Fred.

“It’s incredible,” Schaaf said. “We’re very happy they are allowing us to proceed.” Also being interred today are the ashes of World War II Army vets B. Kimber Rhoads of Putnam County and Warren Anger of Albany.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=940098#ixzz0qYwYK2U9

Robert Hanson last saw Hans Hanson at a family function in 1981. However, the family lost all contact with him in 1993 when Robert Hanson’s father, the only person with contact information for his brother, died. But Robert Hanson, 58, never forgot his Uncle Fred, and in recent years, his research on websites like Ancestory.com started paying off. He recently found Hans Hanson’s military and Social Security records, which led him to Clifton Park. But he was never able to pinpoint exactly what happened to his uncle.
Hans Hanson was born in the Bronx to parents from Columbia County. His father was an Army veteran who is buried in a national cemetery. His mother remarried and was buried in a national cemetery with her second husband.

Hans Hanson married a woman named Dora around 1940, but they never had children. He was a metal worker with one year of high school when he enlisted in the Army on Nov. 16, 1942 in New York City. He stood just under 5′10” and was reasonably slender, Robert Hanson said.

Uncle Fred fought in Germany during World War II, possibly as a tank commander. When he returned, he moved into a house across the street from his mother, “and tended to take advantage of it,” his nephew said. Hans Hanson drove a taxi and knew all of New York City. He absolutely loved Cadillacs, even if he was afraid to drive his in the city. He spoke in a very thick Bronx accent, Robert Hanson said.

Hans Hanson kept a German gun and knife that he brought back from war in places his nephew couldn’t get to. Dora died in 1990. It’s not certain where. Robert Hanson will start searching for Dora’s grave after today’s service.

Hans Hanson may have moved upstate after his wife’s death. “I wouldn’t say he fell on hard times. But he was not a man of means at all,” Robert Hanson said.

Social Services had paid for Hans Hanson’s cremation at the Burke funeral home. The soldier is one of tens of thousands of veterans nationwide whose cremated remains have gone unclaimed. Funeral directors can bury such remains in their plots if no family members come for them after 120 days, or keep them. Some veterans’ remains have stayed in state funeral homes for more than four decades. But it’s never too late to try to find lost family, as the story of Hans Hanson shows.

“I am just incredibly impressed and actually touched as an American,” Robert Hanson said. “I had about given up hope finding out what happened, but now I will get to honor him.”

Dennis Yusko can be reached at 454-5353 or dyusko@timesunion.com.