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| Wilson Aims to Fix Glitch for Veteran Burials |
June 11, 2003 |
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Quirky Law Can Separate Spouses After Death
Washington, DC - Congresswoman Heather Wilson wants to fix a glitch in the law that affects widowed spouses of veterans who remarry. The New Mexico lawmaker testified before several of her colleagues today in an effort to fix the law. At least one Albuquerque woman is waiting for the legal fix so that her mother can be laid to rest after three years.
"Today there are 26 million living United States Veterans. Behind each of these veterans is a husband or wife who has carried a greater burden than most of us ask our husbands or wives to carry," Wilson told a Veterans Benefits Subcommittee today. "These spouses are just as important to our nation as the veterans to whom they are and were married. But there is a glitch in the law which denies them their right, as the surviving spouse of a veteran, to be buried in a national cemetery with their husband or wife in some circumstances."
One of Wilson`s constituents in Albuquerque, Kay Brown, has been unable to bury her mother`s ashes for three years because of the glitch (see attached Fact Sheet). Currently, the law says that if a veteran dies and their spouse remarries a non-veteran, and then the non-veteran dies or they are divorced, then the spouse can be eligible for burial in a national cemetery.
The law also says if a veteran`s spouse dies and he or she remarries, both spouses are eligible for burial in a national cemetery. But, if a veteran dies and the spouse remarries somebody who isn`t a veteran, the spouse can`t be buried with his or her first spouse in a national cemetery.
"It is this problem that my bill, HR 1167, seeks to remedy," Wilson said today.
"Current law gives surviving veteran spouses-many of them elderly women-a Hobson`s choice: Live alone in order to keep your burial right or, give up your right to be buried with your first spouse to have companionship in your sunset years," testified Wilson, who is the first female veteran to serve in Congress. "The bill I`ve introduced, HR 1167, would allow surviving spouses to remarry and still be buried in a national cemetery with their first spouse if they choose."
Wilson`s bill has been endorsed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW) and its Ladies Auxiliary. The Administration is also supportive of Wilson`s bill.
Fact Sheet
Congresswoman Heather Wilson wants to fix a glitch in the law that affects widowed spouses of veterans who remarry. The New Mexico lawmaker testified before several of her colleagues today in an effort to fix the law. At least one Albuquerque woman is waiting for the legal fix so that her mother can be laid to rest after three years.
Kay Brown, an Albuquerque resident, told Heather about her mom, Francis Gilkerson, Kay`s mother.
Francis` husband, E.T., was an X-Ray technician for the Air Force stationed in Fresno, California for three years during WWII. After he got out of the service, he and Francis were married for 56 years until he died at the age of 84 in 1993.
After a number of years, Francis met and found companionship with an 80-year-old man who she decided to marry. She was very concerned that she should be buried with her first husband and did not want to get married for a second time if that right was to be taken away from her.
Kay contacted the local VA on her mother`s behalf to check. The VA said that it wouldn`t be a problem for Kay`s mom to be buried at the national cemetery in Santa Fe as long as she had still been married to E.T. at the time of his death, which she was.
Francis married her second husband and lived very happily until her death in September of 2000. When Kay said that she was to be buried at the national cemetery in Santa Fe with her husband of 56 years, the mortician shook his head and said that wasn`t possible because her second husband was not a veteran.
Kay called the VA again after her mothers` death. They told her that the law prohibited her mother from being buried with her father because she had remarried a non-veteran who was living when Kay`s mom died.
The VA gave Kay the wrong information when she first asked, and their error has caused heartache for Kay and her family.
But the prohibition is in the law.
The ashes of Kay`s mother, Francis, are still in a closet at Kay`s house. And there are thousands of other Widows and Widowers in the same situation.
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