Submitted photo This grave marker was likely replaced after Elmer Rudolph’s wife passed away.

For Sharen Trembath, the phone started ringing at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. Callers, who saw the article in the OBSERVER or online, were offering advice and ideas on why the gravestone could have been possibly found on the shores of Lake Erie near Angola.

Through correspondence with a man from Forestville and U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins’ office, it appears there is an answer to how the stone somehow arrived at the beach.

“His wife was Heriott Rudolph who died May 1984 at age 86,” Higgins’ office noted in an email to Trembath. “We also found that Elmer M. Rudolph was buried in Elmlawn Cemetery in Kenmore. … I called the cemetery and they told me that Elmer M. Rudolph has a gravestone there with his wife Heriott. So I think what happened was that you found Elmer M. Rudolph’s original gravestone and then that stone was replaced by a new gravestone that had both him and his wife’s name on it. That gravestone was likely replaced in 1984 when Heriott passed away.

“The lady I talked to at the cemetery said that the newer gravestone indicates that he was a Brigadier General in the USAR during World War II. … I am now trying to track down family members. I will keep you in the loop.”

Trembath, Lake Erie Coordinator of the Great Lakes Beach Sweep, said one of the volunteers found the marker last Friday. According to an obituary from the Courier Express that was sent to the OBSERVER by a reader, Rudolph died “suddenly” on March 21, 1969, and was a member of a number of Buffalo-based service organizations.