Eagle, Idaho Artist, John Sword, learned about the family’s efforts to obtain permission for her to be interred at Arlington National Cemetery on a national news report. The news footage showed a black plastic urn container sitting on a closet shelf. John contacted Erin Miller, Mrs. Harmon’s granddaughter, and offered to design and create a special urn for the ceremony. After several months, numerous emails, photos and telephone conversations, the completed urn (shown below) was delivered for Mrs. Harmon’s ceremony. John also provided matching memorial vases for Mrs. Harmon’s daughter and three granddaughters.
The urn was sculpted from hand-selected African Padauk. Padauk is a moderately heavy, strong and stiff wood with exceptional stability. It is valued for its toughness and beautiful color which darkens over time to a dark reddish-brown. John selected Padauk as symbolic of the toughness, strength and stability required of WASP pilots. Prior to the ceremony, soils that John collected from Sweetwater, Texas, where Mrs. Harmon trained, and Nellis Air Force Base, where she was stationed, were placed into two small cavities in the base of the urn. As shown in the photograph, Elaine’s wings were secured to the urn.
John and his wife, Heidi Egerman were honored to attend the ceremony on September 7th at the Arlington National Cemetery.
To learn more about this story and the considerable efforts that went into obtaining legal permission for WASP pilots to be interred at Arlington National Cemetery, see: Female Pilot Unit Gains Support in Congress for Right to Arlington Burials
See news coverage below.
CBS Evening News ~ September 8, 2016
CBS Evening News Video |
The U.S. Air Force Honor Guard carries the remains of World War II pilot Elaine Harmon during services on Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. |