Strangers salute WWII vet who died at 90 with no family

GRAND HAVEN (AP) — More than 100 people have paid their final respects to a World War II veteran from Michigan who died with no known relatives.

WOOD-TV reports that about 150 people, some of whom never met Gordon Hale, gathered for his funeral Thursday at Grand Haven’s Lake Forest Cemetery.

Hale died at age 90 on Nov. 10 at a Grand Haven nursing home where he’d lived for 14 years.

After records showed that Hale was an only child who had no children himself, a local American Legion post joined with nursing home staff and others to make sure he had mourners at his military funeral.

Nurse aide Sequita Henry says it's a blessing so many people turned out for Hale’s funeral. She says he wasn’t alone because “we were all his family.”