It took BJ Alums founder and newsroom retiree Harry Liggett’s son TWENTY MONTHS to get the date of his father’s death on the tombstone that Harry shares with wife Helen Smolak Liggett in Akron’s Holy Cross Cemetery.

Harry & Helen Liggett

Writes Bob Liggett:

“FINALLY! My Dad passed away January 2014. It took until September 2015 to get the tombstone engraved with date of death. The run-around I got from the funeral home was horrible. I did not get any action until I got my attorney involved. The customer service I got was inexcusable but finally it is done.”

Harry, with his penchant for accuracy and timeliness, must be spinning in his grave over this affront.

But it’s not the first time tardy treatment has affected Harry after his passing. It took the BJ 16 months to give him a 9-month refund for a subscription he was unable to use while resting below ground in Holy Cross Cemetery.

I have a double grave marker with my late wife, Monnie Turkette Olesky, in Northlawn Memorial Gardens. It will be up to the Summit Memorials, which sold me the Matthews Memorials grave marker,  to add my death date to it when I take the Big Dirt Nap. Sure hope my children don’t have the problems that Bob did with Harry’s death date.

Harry and Helen were married in the Immaculate Conception Church in 1956. They moved to Akron when Harry was hired by the Beacon Journal in 1965. Helen was a 1948 graduate of Immaculate Conception High School in Dennison. She died in 2010 and is buried in Akron's Holy Cross Cemetery.

Harry was a long-time member of St. Paul Catholic Church on Brown Street in Akron and lived on Firestone Boulevard.

Harry was hired by the Beacon Journal in 1965. 

Hoban and University of Akron graduate Bob, an account, lives in Akron. Harry & Helen’s other son, Tom Liggett, also a Hoban & Akron U. grad, is Community Pregnancy Center director of development. He is married to Susan and lives in Akron.