By: Taylor Arens - Journal Staff
Mary Lee Johnson and her husband were re-siding their house one afternoon and what they found behind their window well was unique and a mystery to them on why it’s there, a veteran grave marker.
The grave marker was of Russel Joseph Bunge of Fordyce. Bunge was born in 1892 in Pennsylvania but passed away at a nursing home in Hartington at the age of 80 in 1972 according to an archived obituary. Bunge was a veteran of World War I, starting his service in 1917 and being discharged in 1919 according to Ancestry records. He married his wife Mary M. Zavadil in 1932 and farmed in the Cedar County area for 50 years. He was ranked as Private 1st Class in the US Army. He was laid to rest in Fordyce in 1972.
To find information about this veteran was a journey for Johnson. She called Wintz Funeral Home in Hartington, the courthouse in Hartington and to the sheriff’s office, the VFW, local veteran Jim Hames, and even her attorney daughter to get to the bottom of this veteran’s story. Her daughter looked up the veteran and found Bunge’s obituary in the Norfolk paper.
It is no question that this is a unique finding by Johnson. She then handed the marker over to Hames, who helped her take it out of her window well.
Johnson and her husband bought the house from Bunge’s daughter, Roman Potts, so Johnson suspects that’s where the connection lies. Johnson and her husband have owned the house for 39 years.
Although they’re not sure why it was behind a piece of tin on their window well, they know they are re-siding that side of their house and the marker is in good hands with Hames.