An unclaimed body no longer: Alan Clarke wouldn't allow Gwen Bowers to be forgotten

Scanning the obituaries in The Providence Journal the other day, Alan F. Clarke, who is 83, found an official state notice that added another layer of sadness to the passing of someone he knew.

It seemed Gwen Bowers had been forgotten.

“The Department of Human Services is seeking information regarding relatives or friends of Gwendolyn R. Bowers age 81 who died on September 30, 2023 at Kent Hospital ... Last known address 62 North Marlborough Street, Warwick, RI 02818. Anyone with information regarding next-of-kin, please call (401) 574-8476.”

“Burial will take place on or after October 20, 2023.”

How could that be? Clarke asked himself. He had known Gwen Bowers as an acquaintance for decades. They were a year apart at East Greenwich High School in the late 1950s. Her father ran the horse-riding academy at Goddard Park. She was “a local girl” whom he’d seen over the decades at school reunions, who held various jobs, maintained a Facebook page and lived just a block or two over the East Greenwich line. Town people had known her for, well, a lifetime.

“She was one of us.”

Clarke dialed the phone number in the announcement and waited for the prompt. A woman’s recorded voice came on. But the message sounded unrelated to the subject at hand, and seemed to have been cut off: ”– your name and the name of your supervisor, thank you.” That’s all it said. Three seconds of not very helpful information.

Clarke went ahead and left his message anyway, giving his name and his phone number and the reason he called: That he was a friend of Gwen Bowers and he wanted to intercept her being buried without some remembrance left of her life.

Days passed. No one called him back.

That Oct. 20 burial date, mentioned in the announcement, weighed heavily on him.

More: For 46 days, RI family didn't know their father had died, was buried in unmarked grave

Days passed. No one from the Department of Human Services called.

Clarke, a former newspaper man who went on to start his own graphic arts business before turning to the care of local historical cemeteries about 20 years ago, took to social media to lodge his displeasure with DHS.

“Apparently Gwen Bowers [has] died ... She deserves a better ending than an unmarked or minimally marked grave because someone who placed an ad cannot take the time to call back and speak to someone who knew her,” Clarke wrote on the Facebook page East Greenwich Then and Now.

“She deserves better than this.”

When a reporter for The Journal reached Clarke on Tuesday afternoon, he was on his way to Quidnessett Memorial Cemetery in North Kingstown, where after some research, he said, he had found the burial place of Gwen Bowers’ parents. She was an only child. “Maybe there is some room for her,” he said.

DHS acknowledges issues with the phone system used by loved ones, friends and family to claim bodies.

Meanwhile, in response to questions from The Journal, a spokesman for DHS acknowledged problems with the phone messaging system used for its community death notices.

“DHS greatly appreciates the responses generated through its regularly advertised community death notices,” said Jim Beardsworth in an email. “Unfortunately, there was some confusion with the messaging on the automated line and the necessary follow-up. This has since been resolved and should ensure continuity in messages received and calls returned.”

They died alone: Without family or friends. What happens to their earthly remains?

Beardsworth said DHS staff were investigating how long the phone-message glitch had been going on, “but it’s worth noting that DHS staff have still been receiving and following up on information left on that line.”

Beardsworth, however, asked for contact information for Clarke so that the department could reach out to him regarding Gwen Bowers.

DHS places death notices in The Journal regularly, sometimes a few a month, and some months “could see a dozen or more.”

When next of kin can’t be located, Beardsworth said, DHS partners with a small network of funeral homes around the state “to support burial based on available space in Rhode Island cemeteries.”

Beardsworth said, "The next of kin may or may not take custody of the body; that is their choice. Additionally, just because someone contacts DHS or makes an application for a public burial for a deceased person, whether next of kin or not, does not mean they will be responsible for the costs associated with the burial."

"Even in the instance when the next of kin calls, they may still apply for a public-assistance burial for the deceased," he said.

On Friday, a woman from DHS finally called Clarke. She said she was terribly sorry for not calling him sooner, Clarke told The Journal.

Clarke said he'd like to get a nice grave marker for Gwen Bowers, after the state handles her burial.

Perhaps he can fit it in nicely next to where her parents are buried.

"That way she's not forgotten."

Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Alan Clarke was determined to keep Gwen Bowers from a pauper's grave