ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — He was a war hero, a World War II veteran who was injured in Germany and, when he died in December, the people who cared for him tried to bury him with full military honors. However, a little known rule in Orange County forced his body into a morgue and then to a lonely burial.
"His name was Israel Jackson, but I called him Jack," friend Delphine Landers said.
Before retired Army Sergeant Israel Jackson died, he told his caretaker that he wanted to be buried in his uniform in the Florida National Cemetery. But Delphine Landers, who lived with Jackson since 1986, isn't a blood relative, so she hit a road-block at the funeral home.
"She told me I couldn't bury him because I wasn't blood kin. And the county came and got him and put him in the morgue, in the freezer," she said.
Landers was told that Jackson had been declared indigent and would be buried by the county after 30 days. She says she called the funeral home repeatedly for the next month, saying she wanted to be there when he was buried. Then, January 15, she got the news.
"Mr. Jackson was buried last Monday. I couldn't believe this," she said.
Jackson had been buried five days earlier, with no mourners.
"He could have gotten military honors had it been a private case, but through Orange County they do not allow for services," Wynn's funeral home director Gail Dewitt-Thomas said.
Dewitt-Thomas said the county would only allow a gravesite and headstone, but Eyewitness News found out that might not be the case. One veterans group in Orlando says, when it comes to fulfilling a veteran's dying wish, cost is not a concern.
"Our post would have done that. If we'd have known what was going on. We would have done everything," said Larry Miltenberger, retired U.S. Army.
Eyewitness News confirmed through the county, there is no rule prohibiting military services for indigent veterans and the Veterans of Foreign Wars would have staged a service for Sergeant Jackson for free.
"He gave his life for this country and they should have more respect than that," Landers said.
Israel Jackson was buried January 11 at Florida National Cemetery. The problem in this case is that he had no family and no legal guardian, which means the county had to take over.
WFTV
