Hidden Words on a Grave

In Polk County, Iowa, the inscription honoring Steven Paul Owens remembers a beloved son, brother, father, papa, uncle, friend and cousin. Read the first letter of each engraved line, however, and a two-word profanity emerges. His children say the phrase was unmistakably their dad: a familiar expression he used affectionately with people he liked. His daughter told CNN that coaxing those words out of him became a running family joke. To them, the stone preserves his humor alongside their love.The Camp Township Trustees see a question of respect in a shared place of mourning. They argue that profanity has no place in the cemetery and have consulted lawyers about removing the marker. The family says no offense was intended and wants it to remain unchanged. With no resolution reported, the dispute has attracted widespread online attention, exposing a painful divide between a family’s intimate remembrance and a cemetery’s standards.