Charter Oak Crematory

In another part of the South Side’s Oak Woods Cemetery, near the south wall, a private security guard watched over the Confederate Mound, a federal monument that got beefed-up protection after the deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, two years ago.A little to the east of the Mound, on the other side of a broken picket fence lies another graveyard where few, it would seem, are watching — except perhaps the ghosts of the hundreds of Jewish people buried there.Amid knee-high weeds and grass, headstones jutted from the ground like broken teeth; some leaned into each other like teetering dominoes. Two rusting stubs were all that remained of a headstone knocked off its base. And on a cracked concrete path between graves lay an empty bottle of Hennessy cognac — near the torn packaging for pills promising to “take your sexual performance to the next level.”“It’s an eyesore to our park,” Natalie Woods, general manager at Oak Woods, said in mid-May.Why are many of these Jewish graves, within the boundaries of the larger cemetery, in such a sorry condition? The answer is complicated. But Dignity Memorial — the company that owns Oak Woods and bills itself as “North America’s largest provider of funeral, cremation, and cemetery services” — has a simple answer: It doesn’t own those plots. A sign notes that Dignity Memorial does not own the Jewish cemetery on the Oak Woods Cemetery grounds. Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times Depending on who you ask, the Jewish section is actually owned by three or four different synagogues, with congregations that have long since migrated from their South Side and suburban homes.One of the owners, Congregation Kesser Maariv in Skokie, calls itself the “oldest Orthodox congregation in the Midwest.”“The synagogue’s charter at Oak Woods Cemetery pre-dates the Charter of the City of Chicago,” it says on the congregation’s website.Synagogue staff didn’t return calls from the Chicago Sun-Times.Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel ...

Township supervisors are considering approval of the project site plan. Chuck Nevins, chairman of the church council, said the columbarium grew from an initial idea of developing a prayer garden. Church officials noted increased interest in cremation as an alternative to a traditional burial. “We think there’s a growing need, a growing interest, but one of the steps is to see if it can be done,” said Nevins. “It is kind of the modern-day version of cemetery plots outside the church proper.” “As we were looking at the additions, we were thinking, ‘How do we provide for whole life transition?’ ” said the Rev. Tom Beagan, executive pastor. “That’s when we started to think about the columbarium.” Columbariums are in use at Unity Cemetery in the township and at West Newton Cemetery. Several churches in the Pittsburgh area also have installed them, but Nevins believes Charter Oak may be the first church in Westmoreland County to develop a columbarium. “It’s something that will be there for decades that families can count on,” he said. Beagan noted Charter Oak officials haven’t determined whether the columbarium niches will be reserved solely for church members or will be available to the public. A columbarium was installed last year at Murrysville Cemetery, a community cemetery operated by First Presbyterian Church of Murrysville. According to plans presented to the supervisors this week, the Charter Oak columbarium would be 6 feet high and stretch nearly 80 feet long in a spot northeast of the church building. It would contain about 500 niches, each capable of holding up to four urns. Qualifying as a cemetery, it requires approval from the supervisors as a conditional use in a residential zone. They may rule on the proposal at their Feb. 8 meeting. Charter Oak planners also want to construct two additions, each of more than 3,500 square feet, to the 30,000-square-foot church. One initially would house offices. The other would add a second-story chapel above classrooms. Founded in 1961 in the basement of a house i...

Bruemmer June 16, 1932 - July 06, 2019 John W. Bruemmer LA CROSSE/ONALASKA -- John W. Bruemmer, 87, died Saturday, July 6, 2019. He was born in La Crosse, June 16, 1932, to John W. and Edna (Olson) Bruemmer. He married M. Jean Wartinbee Sept. 22, 1951, at Christ Episcopal Church in La Crosse. John attended Roosevelt Elementary, Logan Junior and High Schools. He was a center for the all-city football team, played center for the 1949 state runner up basketball team, and played center field for the Logan Ranger baseball team. He continued his football career at Luther College and was described as "the best center I ever coached," by Luther coach Edsel Schweizer. John graduated from Luther College in 1953, with a major in business administration. After three years of teaching and coaching football at Bricelyn, Minn., John returned to the Luther campus in the fall of 1956, where in addition to coaching football, he became the assistant business manager, then assistant treasurer in 1963, and from 1967-1979, was the college treasurer. In 1983, he was inducted into Luther College's Athletic Hall of Fame. In the fall of 1979, John became vice president of finance at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., then moved on to comptroller at Augsburg College. He continued his love of football coaching at Mounds View High School in Arden Hills, Minn. John was asked to be the executive director of the Minneapolis branch of Virchow Krause, CPA's. Adrian Helgeson, a senior partner, had befriended John during university audits and was so impressed with John's books, that he offered John a job when he retired from the university. John's second retirement was a part time job as business manager for the Laborers Training Center for over five years. John was a charter member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Decorah and then became a member of Nativity Lutheran Church in St. Anthony, Minn. When he and Jean moved back to the La Crosse area, he returned to Trinity Lutheran, where he had been baptized and confirmed.