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St. Paul: or White Bear Lake:
Homeless St. Paul Veteran to Be Laid to Rest
This past week Mueller Memorial was contacted by Pastor Brian Scoles from Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church regarding the death of one of his parishioners, Jerry Jackson.
Mueller Memorial is a funeral home in St. Paul, so calls of this nature are not unusual, however, this call was unique because the staff had just been talking about the case of Jerry Jackson in their East Side office.
Everyday a copy of the Pioneer Press arrives at Mueller’s doorstep on the corner of Johnson Parkway and East 7 th Street, and one of their funeral directors, Alex Hacker, had read the story of a homeless veteran who had died in Indian Mounds Park, just a few miles from their location, and it had sparked a conversation.
“When Pastor Scoles contacted us that day we immediately started figuring out how we could help,” said Scott Mueller, owner of Mueller Memorial, “There’s a lot that we do in the background, logistically, for planning a funeral, and it becomes even more complicated when we have limited vital information about the person who has died. But we knew we had to help.”
Pastor Scoles connected Mueller with Jerry’s next of kin, a brother who lives outstate, and was able to gain permission to proceed with planning Jerry’s funeral.
Mueller’s staff set to work. Thorough some investigating, and with the help of federal and county veteran’s associations, they were able to secure Jackson’s interment in Fort Snelling National Cemetery with military honors.
From the moment Mueller began planning, he knew he would be offering the full services of his company, equipment, and staff at no charge.
When asked why he is doing this Mueller said, “Jerry’s story could be seen as emblematic for the way we treat our veterans and the way they all too often slip through the cracks, but Jerry wasn’t an emblem, he was a person—a veteran—he was someone who served his country and someone who mattered to the people of our neighborhood. We just couldn’t let that go unrecognized. It was…it was just the right thing to do.”
Services for Jerome William “Jerry” Jackson will be held at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church on Thursday, March 12 th . Visitation at 12:30pm, Memorial Service at 1:00pm. He will be interred at Fort Snelling National Cemetery the same day, with full military honors, at 2:30pm.
More information can be found, and condolences offered here.
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