[SLP-D] SOUTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Glenn Emerson Cook had no known family to lay him to rest at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on Tuesday, but he was far from alone.Roughly 60 people, including fellow military veterans and local volunteers, honored Cook at a funeral service with full military honors.
They knew little about Cook, 70, of Olivette, other than that he was an Army veteran who fought in the Vietnam War. Calvin Whitaker, who owns Michel Funeral Home in St. Louis, said no one was even able to locate a picture of him.
Deplorables in action
But they knew that one of Cook’s last acts was to donate part of his estate to The BackStoppers Inc., an organization that supports families of first responders killed in the line of duty.
Backstoppers in turn contacted Whitaker, whose small family-run funeral home has held funerals for nine homeless U.S. veterans with no known families in the last six years.
