Print edition: 
TOPEKA — Family members of Bennie Lee Graham were heartbroken when they came to look for his grave 10 years ago at Mount Hope Cemetery, only to discover it had no headstone.
At 11 a.m. Saturday, about a dozen family members will return to the cemetery, this time for a ceremony marking the placement of a headstone on Graham's grave — 54 years after he was buried there.
Graham, who was from Kansas City, Kan., spent five months in 1957 at the old Boys Industrial School, a correctional facility for youths.
The entire time he was at the facility, Graham was ill from complications from an appendectomy he had before he came to the facility.
When it became evident he was seriously ill, Graham was taken to Stormont-Vail Hospital for treatment. He never recovered and died June 28, 1957. He was 14.
The state took responsibility for burying Graham in a section of Mount Hope Cemetery, apparently because his family didn't have funds to pay for a burial or to transport his body back to Kansas City.
A small cemetery for the Boys Industrial School was overgrown at the time, preventing Graham from being buried there with 12 other youths who had died over the previous 73 years.
Though his grave wasn't marked, Graham wasn't forgotten.
Earlier this year, the Rev. Joseph Chontos Jr., a Catholic priest who works as a clinical chaplain at the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex — the former Boys Industrial School — set out to get Graham a headstone.
Chontos said he learned about Graham in 2009 but didn't go to look for his grave until this past May. He found the grave, but was shocked it had no headstone.
Chontos sought assistance from a variety of sources, from Topeka businesses to churches. Nearly everyone he asked was quick to help.
Lardner Monuments designed and made a headstone, which was placed on the grave site Tuesday.
Bowser-Johnson Funeral Home is providing programs for Saturday's service and two limousines for Graham's family members — some of whom are coming from Kansas City, Mo. —while they are in Topeka.
Mount Hope Cemetery will open its chapel and have a tent in place at the grave site for services on Saturday.
And Christ the King Catholic Church is providing a cantor and organist for the service, as well as furnishing a luncheon afterward for family members and invited guests.
"I'm very, very pleased," Chontos said. "It's a very good feeling. So many people in the community have taken part in this. They've given of their time, energy and professional service to make this happen."
Chontos said he didn't know why Graham was placed at the Boys Industrial School in the first place, but he said he didn't think it was the result of a serious crime.
He said his motivation to get the headstone was that Graham needed a marker to make sure he was remembered.
"This is someone's final resting place," Chontos said. "It's a sad thing someone would die and not have a headstone to mark they lived in this world and that they completed their journey in death."
Chontos undertook a five-month process to bring this project to its fulfillment.
Along the way, he was able to obtain addresses of possible relatives of Graham.
He wrote to the people whose names and addresses he had obtained. As a result, Chontos was able to locate Graham's mother, Daisy, now 91, and his brothers, Bradie and Verdell, and his sister, Dinah.
Graham's father, James, died in February 1967.
Chontos said he decided a memorial service with Graham's family present was something that needed to be done to give the family a sense of peace and closure.
Since Graham couldn't be buried with other residents of the state reform school, a process was launched asking Gov. Sam Brownback to name the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex cemetery in memory of Bennie Lee Graham.
Chontos said the decision by the governor is pending.
Richard L. Kuebler II, property manager at Mount Hope Cemetery, said he was grateful for the work Chontos did in getting a headstone on Graham's grave.
Kuebler said there were "a lot of unmarked graves" at Mount Hope Cemetery, in large part because families might not have the money to purchase a headstone. Such is the case at many cemeteries, Kuebler said.
But for a grave to sit unmarked for 54 years before getting a headstone — that is a rarity, Kuebler said.
"This is very unusual," he said. "It doesn't happen very often at all. I know we think it's a wonderful thing."
Saturday's service will begin at the Mount Hope mausoleum chapel, then proceed to the grave site on the northeast side of the cemetery. The service will conclude with a prayer, song and blessing of the gravestone.
Graham was born Oct. 15, 1942, the son of James Lee Graham and Daisy Lockhart Graham.
The service will be what would have been his 69th birthday.
