Awards and Recognition
Woman finds aunt’s grave by Robbie Evans
March 31, 2007
revans@thenewsstar.com
Lela Howard’s quest to find the grave of her aunt who died in the 1978 Jonestown, Guyana massacre-
suicide came to a quiet end Friday in a corner of the Monroe City Cemetery. After a six-month search to
find the grave of Mary Pearl Willis, it took less than a half-hour to excavate a site believed by Howard and
city officials to be Willis’ final resting place. Howard, along with the assistance of local funeral home
owner the Rev. Rodney McFarland, positively identified Willis’ casket following the excavation by Monroe
Public Works crews.
Howard, of Culver City, Calif., had arrived in Monroe earlier this week and with the help of relatives and
eyewitnesses of the funeral was able to pinpoint a location in the cemetery where the grave was.
“It’s done,” said an emotional Howard, pointing to her aunt’s grave. “She’s there and she will be
recognized from now on.” Willis was a member of the Rev. Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple and one of 900
victims in the November 1978 mass murder-suicide that Jones ordered. When she was buried in January
1979, a head stone was never placed at the site to mark her grave.
Since the city didn’t keep plot records on where graves were located in the cemetery until the early 1980s,
Howard and city officials had been unable to locate Willis’ grave — until Friday. Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s
office even became involved after Howard filed a complaint with her office. The complaint was forwarded
to the Louisiana Cemetery Board, which sent a representative to help locate the grave earlier this week.
Howard worked with City Attorney Nanci Summersgill Friday in a hurried effort to go through the proper
channels to have the grave excavated. The effort included getting permission for the excavation from
some of Willis’ other relatives.
As workers shoveled the last few inches of dirt from a portion of the grave, Howard broke down in tears.
McFarland, who oversaw the excavation, looked at the color and the side of the casket.
“This is the one you described,” McFarland said. Before the excavation, Howard had described the casket
as a light blue-type color with a steel strip on the side. McFarland confirmed that the color was nearly
similar and that a steel strip had been welded around the casket to seal it.
Howard, with the help of her son Chris Demirdjian, knelt down and briefly touched her aunt’s casket.
Trembling, she then reached down from the dirt unearthed from atop the casket and picked up a small
plastic flower with pink petals that lay on the ground. After the dirt was placed back over Willis’ grave,
Howard placed the small flower atop the grave. “I have her headstone ordered and I’ll be back next month
to place it on her grave,” Howard said. “Nobody’s going to walk around her grave again without knowing
who’s there.”
March 31, 2007
revans@thenewsstar.com
Lela Howard’s quest to find the grave of her aunt who died in the 1978 Jonestown, Guyana massacre-
suicide came to a quiet end Friday in a corner of the Monroe City Cemetery. After a six-month search to
find the grave of Mary Pearl Willis, it took less than a half-hour to excavate a site believed by Howard and
city officials to be Willis’ final resting place. Howard, along with the assistance of local funeral home
owner the Rev. Rodney McFarland, positively identified Willis’ casket following the excavation by Monroe
Public Works crews.
Howard, of Culver City, Calif., had arrived in Monroe earlier this week and with the help of relatives and
eyewitnesses of the funeral was able to pinpoint a location in the cemetery where the grave was.
“It’s done,” said an emotional Howard, pointing to her aunt’s grave. “She’s there and she will be
recognized from now on.” Willis was a member of the Rev. Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple and one of 900
victims in the November 1978 mass murder-suicide that Jones ordered. When she was buried in January
1979, a head stone was never placed at the site to mark her grave.
Since the city didn’t keep plot records on where graves were located in the cemetery until the early 1980s,
Howard and city officials had been unable to locate Willis’ grave — until Friday. Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s
office even became involved after Howard filed a complaint with her office. The complaint was forwarded
to the Louisiana Cemetery Board, which sent a representative to help locate the grave earlier this week.
Howard worked with City Attorney Nanci Summersgill Friday in a hurried effort to go through the proper
channels to have the grave excavated. The effort included getting permission for the excavation from
some of Willis’ other relatives.
As workers shoveled the last few inches of dirt from a portion of the grave, Howard broke down in tears.
McFarland, who oversaw the excavation, looked at the color and the side of the casket.
“This is the one you described,” McFarland said. Before the excavation, Howard had described the casket
as a light blue-type color with a steel strip on the side. McFarland confirmed that the color was nearly
similar and that a steel strip had been welded around the casket to seal it.
Howard, with the help of her son Chris Demirdjian, knelt down and briefly touched her aunt’s casket.
Trembling, she then reached down from the dirt unearthed from atop the casket and picked up a small
plastic flower with pink petals that lay on the ground. After the dirt was placed back over Willis’ grave,
Howard placed the small flower atop the grave. “I have her headstone ordered and I’ll be back next month
to place it on her grave,” Howard said. “Nobody’s going to walk around her grave again without knowing
who’s there.”
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