Brian,
Thanks for sending me his birth name.
(I told Todd that Walter’s death certificate gave both his stage name and his birth name on the “name line”. I added that I was not sure which name his resting place would be found under, at Oakwood Memorial Park—-or if it could be found under both names. Walter Tetley’s birth name was Walter Tetzloff. His middle name—-for both his stage name and his birth name——was Campbell. Campbell was the maiden name of his mother, who was born in Scotland. His father was American, for the record.).
I encourage you to get him listed at Findagrave. I’m very limited with what I can do with Webtv. I can’t snatch photos for instance unless they are jpg’s. Nor can I cut & paste various bits and pieces together into any coherency. If I were creating a page for him at Findagrave, I would have to pinch most of the info from your site anyway.
The advantage to Findagrave is that it’s the largest “online memorial” with so many listings all in one place for grave-hopping. If you get it started, someone else with a piece of the Tetley puzzle just browsing the T’s one day will come upon it and add to the page. You get an onscreen credit (and link) for it too.
There are many listings there without grave, urn, or niche photos. But the info and publicity or personal photos are there. I’ve seen many that just state “Cremated. Ashes given to family.” or “Location of body unknown.” “Ashes scattered at sea.” I did see one once that had a photo of small cardboard boxes on a storage room shelf. Boris Karloff, I believe, requested that his ashes be used in the rose garden at the cemetery. There’s just a little plaque in the rose garden for him. Bessie Smith, due to poverty, was buried in an unmarked grave. Janis Joplin (one of Bessie’s fans) bought her a headstone.
There are possibilities. I really think it would be great to get him listed at Findagrave. Perhaps someone with fond memories of “Sherman” and some deep pockets will come along and donate a niche or plaque for him.
As we boomers are getting older, we are taking care of unfinished business like this.
Please consider it.
Thanks.
Todd
Hi Todd:
I’ll give your suggestion some thought. Though I have not written it off, at the time being I am more inclined to not get involved. But I have really just started to think about it, however……….
You will probably laugh, when I tell you this……….but I have mentally run the gambit of the full range of emotions and reactions, on both ends of the spectrum, to your idea.
On the one hand, it would be a neat challenge, and I think that Greg and I have risen to the occasion, for all kinds of challenges on this web page. It would be kind of neat to branch out and do, yet another thing, related to what we are trying to do here.
On the other hand, I do have some serious worries and concerns about problems and headaches, that might befall us, if we were to get involved with this venture. I don’t really want to elaborate on those specifics right here in this email.
I will at least run this by Greg. He is not my attorney, of course, but he is very wise, and I turn to him in times when I cannot make my own decision about how to proceed.
Thanks for placing your confidence in us; it is very flattering that you would turn to us, on something that you feel strongly about.
Brian