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Veteran community holds funeral for Marine with no family

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis community came together to lay to rest a man without a family who was a veteran.

When Glenn Shelton died last month, Indiana Funeral Care said his family couldn’t be found.

What they did know: The 68-year-old served as a marine in Vietnam and earned a Purple Heart.

So the funeral home invited anyone — veterans, strangers, organizations — to come give him a proper goodbye.

“Through social media, I found out that Mr. Shelton has no family. So I decided we are going to adopt Mr. Shelton. Being a fellow brother, we never leave a fellow brother or sister behind,” said Bill Moylan at the Vet Center.

“Here’s a man that died alone with no family. But I’d have to say with all the people lined out the door and everything else, he has a pretty extensive and impressive family,” said Steve Gore, a post-traumatic stress disorder survivor who attended the funeral.

Shelton was given a veteran funeral service and will be laid to rest at the Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Madison.

“I called the funeral home to see if they had Mr. Shelton’s dog tags, and unfortunately there was no dog tags available. So I ended up making a set. While printing them out, I printed out four sets for the funeral home and then I also printed another hundred. Everybody will have this with them. I have instructed them to please keep them with them so wherever they go, Mr. Shelton will be with us,” Shelton said.