Baton Rouge cemetery records detail damage, oversight limits
(The Center Square) – Louisiana officials received accounts of collapsing tombs at Sweet Olive Cemetery more than a decade before a veteran’s exposed casket brought renewed scrutiny to the Baton Rouge burial ground. Correspondence from 2014 through 2017 obtained by The Center Square from the Louisiana Cemetery Board traces complaints about deteriorating graves, questions about burial fees, and a state regulator’s conclusion that it could not compel maintenance. As previously reported by The Center Square, the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs said in October it was working with other agencies to repair the grave of Pfc. Samuel Pierre Jr. or relocate his remains after a brick structure collapsed, exposing his casket. Pierre was 22 when he died in Korea in 1952, according to the department. Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Daniele Palen previously told The Center Square that the department had not identified living immediate family members and that costs and funding would depend on the legal process. Louisiana Cemetery Board Director Jerry Sullivan said ownership remained unresolved and Sweet Olive had been unlicensed since 2000 because no completed application meeting legal requirements had been submitted. The older files document both preservation efforts and recurring problems. In a Sept. 29, 2014, letter
