The wife of a U.S. Army veteran who served in World War II believes he is buried in a cemetery plot they purchased decades ago in the Massachusetts city they grew up in — as he wished, according to her family’s attorney.
But he’s not, a lawsuit filed by the family says.
Before William Z. Lemnios died at age 98 on June 18, he and his wife left written instructions for their family about how they’re both to be buried at Highland Cemetery in Newburyport, a city about a 40-mile drive northeast from Boston that’s located along the coast, according to a complaint filed Nov. 27.
Several Lemnios family members are buried at the cemetery where the couple — who were “happily” married for more than 70 years — bought two cemetery lots behind William Lemnios’ grandmother’s gravesite in 1988, the complaint says.
William and Angelina Lemnios wanted to be buried together in one lot and left the second lot for their family, according to the complaint. The second lot was supposed to stay empty if no family member used it, the complaint says.
“Under no circumstances should anyone NOT in our family be buried there, and it should never be sold to anyone NOT in our family,” William and Angelina Lemnios wrote in their instructions, the complaint says.
On June 25, one day before William Lemnios’ planned burial at Highland Cemetery, the plans changed when a Newburyport city official told William and Angelina Lemnios’ son that human remains were found in their gravesites, according to the complaint.
A mock burial was held at Highland Cemetery for William Lemnios as a result, then his remains were transported and buried at another cemetery in Newburyport against “his direct instructions and last wishes,” the complaint says.
Angelina Lemnios, 98, is unaware that human remains occupy her and her husband’s cemetery lots instead of her husband’s body, according to attorney Gregory V. Sullivan, the president of Massachusetts-based law firm Malloy & Sullivan who represents the family.
Her family hasn’t told her because it would devastate her, Sullivan told McClatchy News on Dec. 3. She expects to be buried there after she dies.
A few days after William Lemnios was buried, Newburyport officials met with his family at Highland Cemetery and told them three unidentified bodies are buried in the cemetery lots owned by him and his wife, according to the complaint.
The family is suing the city of Newburyport to have the bodies exhumed.
“It was so important to her and her husband that they be buried there,” Sullivan said of Angelina Lemnios’ wishes.
Newburyport officials didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Dec. 3.
Newburyport Mayor Sean Reardon said the city doesn’t “comment on ongoing litigation” in a statement to the Daily News of Newburyport, which first reported on the lawsuit.
William Lemnios Was ‘a True American Hero’
When William Lemnios died at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts, in June, he passed “peacefully” and was “surrounded by his loving family,” according to his obituary. Lexington is about a 40-mile drive southwest from Newburyport.
William Lemnios was born on Sept. 13, 1925 in Athens, Greece before he and his parents migrated to the U.S. in April 1929, according to his obituary.
According to the lawsuit, he and Angelina Lemnios are and were “devout members of the Greek Orthodox Church, which rejects cremation.”
After William Lemnios graduated from Newburyport High School in 1943, he went on to earn a bachelor of science degree for electrical engineering degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master of science degree in theoretical physics from the University of Illinois, according to his obituary.
As a U.S. Army sergeant, he served in the military during World War II for two years and four months, when he experienced combat in France, Germany and Austria, his obituary says. He helped liberate Nazi Germany’s Dachau concentration camp nearly 80 years ago on April 29, 1945, according to his obituary.
William Lemnios was “a true American hero,” the lawsuit says.
Following the war, Lemnios worked at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory for 41 years, according to his obituary, which says “he led the development of advanced concepts for the U.S. Department of Defense that underpin many of the national security systems that protect our Nation today.”
In 1957, he and Angelina Lemnios moved to Lexington and raised four children, his obituary says.
City Won’t Remove the Bodies, Lawsuit Says
As of Dec. 3, the Lemnios family still doesn’t know who is buried in their family’s cemetery plots, Sullivan told McClatchy News.
Newburyport city officials haven’t disclosed their identities, he said and called the situation “really bizarre.”
When city officials informed the family of the three bodies, they offered to bury William Lemnios at a cemetery for veterans, according to the complaint.
This “was not acceptable to the Lemnios family for several reasons, including religious ones,” the complaint says.
The city is accused of refusing to remove the bodies from the Highland Cemetery, according to the complaint.
The family will “settle for nothing less than Newburyport removing the bodies currently located in the lots purchased by Mrs. and Mr. Lemnios so that the body of Mr. Lemnios can be placed to rest there,” the complaint says.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages to be determined in court and demands jury trial.
It also seeks a court order that will require the city to exhume the bodies, the complaint shows.
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