CINCINNATI - As National Police Week came to an end, a member of the Cincinnati Police Department received a proper "re-burial" more than a century in the making.
Rosa Dyer Regan died on duty in 1908, but until recently not much else was known about her.
"We knew that she had died years ago in an accident on duty and we had thought she had fallen through an elevator staff and didn't know much else about it," said Regan’s great granddaughter, Joan Blaes.
But thanks to the help of the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum, Regan’s family began to learn much more.
"Just amazed about all that we found out, about how wonderful she was," Blaes said.
Rosa was a wife and a mother. She also served as the matron at the Cincinnati Police House of Detention.
When Regan died, she wasn’t given the honors she deserved, said Lt. (Ret.) Steven Kramer, now a historian with the Greater Cincinnati Police Museum.
"A funeral mass for her, then they buried her and that seems to be about all," Kramer said.
Regan didn’t even receive a headstone. Until Friday.
"She is due this consideration even 110 years later," Kramer said.
In an official ceremony, Regan received the grave rededication she deserved, complete with a bagpiper and a gun salute.
At least 25 of her family members were present, some of whom traveled from as far as Maryland.
"We're very honored that they're doing this for her," Blaes said.
