In Death, Pauper Gets His Due From Country

NASHVILLE —  A man who fought in Europe during World War II and died in a boarding house fire was buried with military honors, days after he was to receive a pauper’s funeral because nobody had claimed his body.

Alvin Farmer, 75, who in his later years lived at homeless shelters and rest homes, was buried Wednesday at National Cemetery.

The veteran’s body lay unclaimed at the Metro Nashville morgue for nearly a week before a friend produced his World War II discharge.

“I just couldn’t bear to hear on TV and read in the newspapers that he was there and that nobody had come to get him,” said Alice Williams of Ashland. Farmer had given her his honorable discharge from the Army for safekeeping.

“I couldn’t stand to see him be put away with nobody knowing about it,” Williams said.

Members of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars served as pallbearers as Farmer was buried to the sounds of taps and a three-shot rifle salute fired by soldiers from nearby Ft. Campbell.

‘What He Wanted’

“That’s what he wanted, and I’m happy for that,” Williams said. “I’m donating the flag to the Portland Community Library in honor of Alvin Farmer, since that was his hometown, and since he had a love for education and anything and everything that involved learning.”

Williams remembered that Farmer, who won medals fighting in Europe during World War II, told her that when he died, he wanted “the country that he had served to serve him.”

Farmer was a fiercely independent man, she said, who disliked the idea of living at a residential home for the aged.

In July, he moved into the J. D. Residential Home in Lawrenceburg, about 70 miles southwest of Nashville, she said.

Farmer and five others died in a Dec. 24 blaze that gutted the home. The fire remains under investigation.

James O. Parker, co-owner of the home, also attended the funeral and was bitter that Farmer did not receive more attention while he was still alive.

“Where were they when he was alive?” Parker said. “We live in a rich country, so why can’t we take care of our homeless?”