County Remembers the Forgotten with Memorial Service

Greg Wilson/Anderson County

Anderson County on Wednesday hosted the Fourth Annual Indigent Memorial Burial Service at 10 a.m. near to the Civic Center Recycling Center with 19 new names added to the memorial wall to remember those who die in the county and no one claims their remains.

The memorial is adjacent to the old county graveyard, across from the Anderson Civic Center recycling/convenience center at 590 Woodcrest Drive, within the Anderson Sports & Entertainment Center complex.  The site incorporates the historic “county graveyard”/potter’s field area where indigent burials were long conducted, with an added memorial wall to list names as remains are interred.

"It's important to have a place to be laid to rest with dignity and respect,” said Rusty Burns, County Administrator. “It is equally important to have a place to visit and to know that your loved one was provided a final resting place.”

The memorial exists to provide a dignified final resting place and public acknowledgment for people who died in Anderson County whose remains were unclaimed or whose families’ lacked means for burial.  Historically, indigent burials took place in a potter’s field until that space filled up; the civic center site and wall continue that function while making remembrance more visible to the community.

Anderson County, through the coroner’s office, holds periodic indigent burial or memorial services at the site, bringing together cremated remains for interment and naming.  Wednesday’s service included reading names, brief remarks, and a religious or reflective component, emphasizing that those buried “are not forgotten” despite having no traditional funeral.

The Anderson County Coroner's Office keeps the cremated remains of those whose bodies remain after death for one year. After that time, these ashes are scattered in the cemetery behind the new memorial.