MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) – Dozens of people who didn’t know Charles Lanam went to his funeral anyway, honoring his life and his service to his country. The Mitchell Family Funeral Home in Marshalltown posted an appeal on Facebook last week, asking people to attend Monday’s service at the Iowa Veterans Home and cemetery. The funeral home had said the 81-year-old Fairfield native died April 10, leaving behind no family to mourn him. He’d been living at the Iowa Veterans Home.

Sam Giarratano, of Marshalltown, told the Marshalltown Times-Republican that he was overwhelmed so many people came to pay their respects Monday. Another man who attended Lanam’s services, Jeff Hauser, told Des Moines station KCCI that “no veteran should go to the grave by himself.”  Lanam was a U.S. Navy veteran of the Korean War.