If
not for a little known organization, quietly working through the Marion County
Veteran’s Council, George Lieninger would be resting in a pauper’s
grave. The Homeless Veteran Burial Program is handled by volunteers through
the Marion County Dignity Memorial Program.
Bill Ward, the location manager at Forest Lawn Funeral Home said, “Every
veteran is entitled to recognition. They have all put their lives on the line
and we give them dignity and honor. We’re not letting him fall in the
cracks today.”
Lienenger’s
service included an escort led by the U. S. Military Veteran’s Motorcycle
Club, a rifle salute by the American Legion Post 284 Honor Guard and the Marine
Corps League of Ocala performing a flag folding presentation. Volunteer military
chaplain Alan Heneisen led the service because he “believes in helping
out a fellow soldier. One of our brothers in uniform died. He may not have seen
respect on earth, but we can show him respect when he passes. The least we can
do is give him this gift. We would love to have the same thing when we die,
to have someone show us a moment of their time.”
This burial program
for veterans was introduced nationwide by Dignity Memorial over ten years ago,
and they are the only funeral corporation in America to offer these services
free of charge. Since becoming part of the project in 2007, Mr. Ward said Forest
Lawn has performed nine funeral services for homeless veterans.
George Lieninger was
born in Camden, N.J. on September 4, 1947. He grew up in Vincentown, N.J. excelling
in wrestling, football and baseball, and he was scouted by the minor leagues
before being drafted. In 1969 and 1970 he was an Army radioman in Vietnam, receiving
the National Defense Medal and an Expert Rifleman Badge. He received a hardship
discharge from the Army when his father died of cancer.
In 1981 he moved to
Brooksville, FL. and after fighting drug and alcohol addiction, he became homeless.
His body was found on a street in Tallahassee on December 18.
His daughter Lisa Carter, her husband and their family were the only family
members able attend the memorial service. Their five children, ranging in age
from one year to fourteen, were doubly affected since their paternal grandfather,
Elbert Stephen Carter, is also interred in Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell.
Mrs. Carter had been
estranged from Mr. Lieninger when she was ten and did not reconnect until she
was thirty-three. This was done at the urging of her mother who had herself
lost her father to death. Two years ago, Mrs. Carter, her husband Tommy and
her brother Chad searched for Lieninger in Tallahassee. “It’s by
the grace of God we found him; it was like a needle in a haystack,” she
said. “He cried the whole time, but the last two years, he kept in touch.”
Mrs. Carter said she grew up a daddy’s girl and her favorite memories
include her father teaching her to fish and play basketball. She regrets that
he couldn’t get his life together to be a part in her children’s
lives. She and her family gratefully witnessed the ceremony as her father was
buried with honor.
Mrs. Carter said that
if it wasn’t for the program, her father would have been cremated or placed
in an unmarked grave. She added that the family was not prepared for the magnitude
of the ceremony, when arriving they thought there were two funerals in the same
area of the cemetery.
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