Utahns visit cemeteries, pay tribute to loved ones for Memorial Day

Utahns visit cemeteries, pay tribute to loved ones for Memorial Day

(Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)


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SALT LAKE CITY — Linda Martinez wandered among the stark white military headstones Sunday, carrying a penny for her uncle.

When she found his headstone, Martinez put the penny atop the marker for Joe B. Talamante, a Colorado man who was in the 129th Infantry and lies buried in the military section of the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

The penny, she said, is a military tradition that will ensure he has safe passage to the other side.

"I come up here every year," she said.

Near the top of the hill, Michael Yang and his family were observing another tradition — a Chinese ceremonial picnic, replete with pork, rice, duck, an assortment of fruit and incense.

Each of the offerings has symbolic meaning, designed to impart a variety of well-wishes and other sentiments for his father, Nai Keng, who died in 1992.

Cemeteries throughout Utah and the rest of the nation are bursting with colorful flowers, freshly planted flags and visitors turning out for the annual Memorial Day weekend tradition of acknowledging the lives lost by U.S. military members and loved ones in general.

Roderick Zamora made the long trek from Roosevelt for the express purpose of visiting his father's gravesite. He was accompanied on his visit to the cemetery by his daughter, Kynosha Alley, and his granddaughter, Melissa Suess.

The trio spent quite a bit of time at the spot where Jose Julian Zamora, a corporal in the U.S. Army, was buried after his death on July 21, 1989.

Zamora said his father was a good man who raised three boys alone.

"He did what he could do to take care of us, teach us," he said.

Margie Bsumek was at the cemetery to visit her parents' gravesite. Her granddaughter, Italia Bsumek, was using a pair of trimmers to cut back the grass from the grave marker.

"I always knew they were good parents," Margie Bsumek said quietly, reflecting on the lives of Virginia and Hoffman Hughes, but she noted her convictions were reinforced when she saw how other parents acted via the job she had with the Office of Recovery Services.

"Some people don't have their children's best interests at heart."

While many people were dropping off flowers and spending a few minutes of remembrance before heading out for the movies or other family outings, Brent Christensen was making a day of it.

Photo credit: Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News

A Marine Corps veteran and the Utah state director for Bugles Across America, Christensen brought his Vietnam helmet, some boots, a bugle and a flower to adorn a bench in front of the veterans' section of the cemetery.

He snapped a bunch of photos and was planning to be in full uniform to play at a military tribute later Sunday afternoon. On Monday, he will do another tribute at the Kaysville City Cemetery.

His services are performed for free, without compensation for any expenses. Although there used to be a bugle corps of about 400 members in the U.S. military, he said that function was eliminated with reductions to the military that came under the Obama administration.

Bugles Across America was formed to fill that void, and the organization keeps busy.

"We're losing 1,500 veterans every day of the week," he said.

Christensen has been performing a military tribute at the Salt Lake City Cemetery every year since 2000, but at "70 plus," he 's not sure how much longer he'll be able to keep going.

Just up the way from Christensen, Mary Lou Brown, 87, was using her cane to help her navigate to the spot where her sister, Elaine Ferguson, is buried.

"She's younger than me, so she shouldn't be here," she said. "It's not right."

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