NATION : Mix-Up Surprises Mourners
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ERIE, Pa. — A mix-up at a funeral home shocked mourners and sent morticians in Erie and North Carolina scrambling today to exchange two bodies.
Friends and relatives of Gloria Bennett, 59, were upset Tuesday night when they arrived at the John Taylor Funeral Home in Erie to pay their last respects.
Bennett died in New York City on Friday, and funeral directors at the Leo Wood Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., prepared her body and put it on a USAir flight to Erie. But when the coffin was opened, those who had come for the viewing saw an unfamiliar face.
Funeral director John Taylor said somehow Bennett’s body was sent to Durham, N.C., by mistake and a casket containing the body of Myrtle Fuller arrived in Erie.
Taylor contacted the North Carolina funeral home and said the two bodies should be in their proper locations late this afternoon.
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