Diane Gravlee’s efforts led to a wonderful reunion for his son and she kindly guided me through adding the three lost cemeteries of Stewart to Find A Grave. All of this is the result of a stranger passing through Stewart who spotted the little cemetery and took the time to photograph it. Shirley arranged for the welcoming reception for the son, including a member of the RCMP, a Priest to give a blessing at the grave, the Mayor and several citizens of Stewart. That contact led to correspondence between them and his visit. A couple of years later the manager of the Museum, Shirley Rosichuk, was contacted by Vilmos’ son. I later did some research on the men who had died at Granduc for the 50th Anniversary of the disaster and was familiar with the name Vilmos Fekete. I met Diane Gravlee one summer when she stopped by to ask if she could post the entries to Find A Grave. We never did find out who this misterious person was, but we gained one thing “Sometimes, people from the beyond want to be found, and strangers step forward to help us piece together their past”!įor several summers I did research at the Stewart Historical Society into the deaths of local pioneers. I showed her the muddy foot prints confirming that there were three of us looking around the headstone, so there was no denying that this grounds keeper was real. She even had the newspaper article for the biography of our lost relative. She did in fact have the information we needed to confirm the burial. She stated there was no-one at the cemetery yesterday scheduled to mow the lawn! Anyway we took her to the exact location of the grave to verify her cemetery data.
Suprisingly, the records keeper denied knowing a grounds keeper named Perez. The next morning, we visited the sextant’s office with what we now knew. We were excited but the light was poor so we rented a hotel for the night and promised to come back the next day. After cleaning off the base of the headstones, we found our headstone was inscripted, “Doc & Midwife of the poor”. He said, that he was familiar with the grave and took us to the far corner where there were 4 unkept headstones. We explained who we were looking for and that she was known to be a midwife for the surrounding area.
His name was Perez and he looked to be a full blooded indian using quite broken english. A man that was busy mowing the lawn finally came over and told us that the cemetery was about to close but he would try to help us. We searched the cemetery for 4 hours without locating the headstone we were looking for. Thank you to Diane and to Find a Grave volunteers everywhere who donate their time to make these kinds of discoveries possible and preserve the memory of those who have passed on.Ī few years ago, my wife and I visited the Mesa Arizona cemetery.
You never know when a contribution you make to Find a Grave will provide just the information someone is looking for. Diane said, “To have been a part of this happening has made all my Find a Grave work so worthwhile.” Vilmos’ son and his wife went to visit the grave and were welcomed warmly by a mounted policeman, the local priest, the mayor and other citizens of Stewart, all present to help celebrate Vilmos’ life. The Find a Grave memorial that Diane had created for Vilmos came up and from it he was able to learn what had happened to his father and where he was buried.
His family had moved to the United States and one day he decided to search the internet for his father’s name. It was Vilmos Fekete’s son, now a grown man with children of his own. Photo by Diane GravleeĪbout a year later, Diane received an email from a very excited man. Vilmos Fekete’s memorial in the Wards Pass Cemetery. Being avid Find a Grave® contributors, they took a day, photographed the graves and added them to the site, including the grave of Vilmos Fekete. In 2013, while passing through Stewart on their way home from a trip to Alaska, Diane Gravlee and her husband noticed a small 116 burial cemetery. They were just left to wonder why they never heard from him again. The Fekete family in Hungary hadn’t known Vilmos was at the mine and had no news of the disaster. Their bodies were returned to Vancouver and are buried in the Mountain View Cemetery. Photo from – click to view articleĪn extensive rescue operation got underway at the camp site while, in Vancouver, the Rose family waited eagerly for news of their boys’ fate and were later heartbroken to learn that both boys were among the dead. Tragically, on February 18, 1965, just months after the mining began and only a week after Blake and Rod Rose arrived at the portal camp, a massive avalanche poured off the surrounding hills, destroying the camp, killing 26 men and trapping others under the snow and in the still-shallow mine tunnel. Vilmos and Iren Rozgonyi Fekete (photo courtesy of Vilmos’ son)