Woman finally finds aunt’s grave by Robbie Evans, March 30, 2007, revans@thenewsstar.com

Lela Howard’s quest to find the grave of her aunt who died in the 1978 Jonestown, Guyana massacre/suicide came to a quiet end today in a corner of the Monroe City Cemetery.

After a six-month search to find the grave of Mary Pearl Willis, it took less than a half-hour to excavate a site believed by Howard and city officials to be Willis’ final resting place. Howard, along with the assistance of local funeral home owner the Rev. Rodney McFarland, positively identified Willis’ casket following the excavation by Monroe Public Works crews.

Howard, of Culver City, Calif., had arrived in Monroe earlier this week and with the help of relatives and eyewitnesses of the funeral was able to pinpoint a location in the cemetery where the grave was.

“It’s done,” said an emotional Howard, pointing to her aunt’s grave. “She’s there and she will be recognized from now on.”

Willis was a member of the Rev. Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple and one of 900 victims in the November 1978 mass murder-suicide that Jones ordered. When she was buried in January 1979, a head stone was never placed at the site to mark her grave.

Since the city didn’t keep plot records on where graves were located in the cemetery until the early 1980s, Howard and city officials had been unable to locate Willis’ grave — until Friday. Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s office even became involved after Howard filed a complaint with her office.

The complaint was forwarded to the Louisiana Cemetery Board, which sent a representative to help locate the grave earlier this week.

Howard worked with City Attorney Nanci Summersgill Friday in a hurried effort to go through the proper channels to have the grave excavated. The effort included getting permission for the excavation from some of Willis’ other relatives.

As workers shoveled the last few inches of dirt from a portion of the grave, Howard broke down in tears. McFarland, who oversaw the excavation, looked at the color and the side of the casket.

“This is the one you described,” McFarland said.