Pueblo police, Roselawn Cemetery restore headstone of fallen officer Elmer Trout
Pueblo police partnered with Roselawn Cemetery to restore the grave of Elmer Trout, a police officer who died in 1935 due to complications from injuries he received in the line of duty.
Trout's headstone had sunken visibly into the ground of the cemetery and was fouled by the roots of a nearby bush, according to Sgt. Frank Ortega of the Pueblo Police Department.
About two weeks ago, the tombstone was raised and the bushes were cut away, restoring the white marble headstone to visibility, Ortega said.
"It was a lot of work, there was a bush here, and a lot of roots, and it was really sunken into the ground. They did a lot of work to make it look as good as it does right now," he said.
Trout, a former police officer and marine veteran, joined the Pueblo Police Department in 1927, according to Ortega. In 1932, he was assaulted on Union Avenue in an incident involving several people. In 1935, he attempted to come back to the force but died in September that year due to complications caused by his injuries.
The grave was restored by police after they noticed his gravestone had sunk into the dirt in May 2022, during fallen officer's memorial week.
At a ceremony Monday afternoon, Pueblo police presented the staff of Roselawn Cemetery with a ceremonial check for $375 for the restoration of the headstone.
Ortega said that members of the police department took it upon themselves to restore Trout's headstone because Trout had no remaining family besides his police family.
The department is also working with Pioneer Cemetery to create a plaque for Moses Laverne, a fallen officer whose headstone could not be located, Ortega said.
"We want to get with Pioneer Cemetery and their regulations and see if we can do some kind of plaque just to acknowledge he's in there somewhere and he's not forgotten," he said.
Rudy Krasovic, executive director and CEO of the Roselawn Cemetery Association, said that with many headstones over 100 years old in the cemetery, it is a constant challenge to maintain them.
"We've been burying people since 1891. So a lot of these situations happen where we find that someone's stone after 90 years has sunk a little lower than it should," he said. "People used to put plants and things around them, and with that, in a lot of cases, it mitigates the ability to see the stones and where the people are. It's an ongoing project," he said.
Krasovic noted that a lot of police officers, firefighters, and military personnel have been buried in the cemetery over the years.
"The intent is always to treat everyone with the most respect we can, and to be able to individualize the gravesites because we like to think people put their personalities or the families' personalities in there ... we try to work with those organizations because they work with us, and they're a part of the Pueblo community."
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This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Fallen police officer's headstone restored by Pueblo PD, Roselawn Cemetery
