Oklahoma family gets headstone for Valley relative’s North Bend grave

Published 5:09 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

NORTH BEND – Seventy-seven years after his death, Charles Joiner may finally rest in peace.

Since 1928, Charles’ remains have existed in an unmarked grave about two or three rows in on the west side of the Mount Si Cemetery in North Bend. A native of Oklahoma, no one in his family had even visited his gravesite.

This June, his burial plot was finally honored with a headstone: a small, 8-by-16-inch flat granite memorial with his name and date of birth and death, along with a small reminder of his roots and what he means to the family who bought the headstone.

“We wanted to remember and respect his memory,” said Mary Morris, who, along with seven other cousins who all live in Oklahoma and are also Charles’ nieces and nephews, contributed to the purchase of the headstone. “We just felt that we wanted his name and Oklahoma connected. We wanted some connection between him and us.”

Three years ago, Morris, 61, was sifting through old family photographs with her niece when she came across an image of her long-deceased uncle Charles. The image sparked an interest about the uncle she had heard about over the years, but never met before his death at age 36.

Researching her family’s history, she discovered that Charles – who died in Snoqualmie in what Morris assumes to have been a logging accident while working on the railroad – had been buried without anything to mark his grave.

“I just couldn’t let go of it,” Morris said.

Knowing only that he had been buried in the North Bend area, Morris initiated communication with Jerry Kaasa, owner of the Mount Si Cemetery, at the beginning of this year.

Looking up old cemetery records, Kaasa confirmed that Charles had been buried in the Mount Si Cemetery, which holds about 2,700 graves dating back to 1907.

Intent on keeping “Uncle Charlie’s” memory alive, Morris and her cousins pooled their money to purchase a headstone for Charles. It was put on a commercial truck owned by cousin Sam Joiner that was headed to Washington state for a delivery, and brought to the cemetery where Kaasa placed it on Charles’ grave.

“Many families need a place to go and maybe take flowers and have a place to remember [the deceased],” said Kaasa, noting that he fields multiple record-searching inquiries and requests for placing headstones on unmarked graves.

Kaasa, now formally retired, was pleased to assist Morris in her efforts, though he noted that out-of-state headstone requests are more often locally purchased via brochures or through him to make things easier and avoid shipping costs.

“I don’t think anyone should have spent time on earth and then die and not at least be recognized by at least a small headstone,” Kaasa said. “You do like to see some sort of memorial.”

Per Morris’ request, Kaasa even took photographs of the grave and North Bend to mail to Morris so that she could see the gravesite with the headstone placed, and the place where Charles spent his last few years. She is adding the images to a scrapbook of Charles that she is creating.

“His grave looks complete,” said Kaasa, noting that in the time period of Charles’ death, it was customary for many companies with employees killed while working to buy a grave and pay for burial expenses if the person had no family, though companies rarely spent the money for a marker. “It’s got a nice new headstone on the site. It’s very readable. It just gives some personalization to the site,” he said.

Though Morris has yet to see the grave personally, she said it looked very nice from the photographs and she intends to visit sometime soon.

More than aesthetics, though, Morris is pleased that Charles has a memorial honoring his memory and that he is remembered, even though she and her cousins never knew him.

“We’re all he has left,” she said.