Wagner Children Memorial Service and Family Gathering

Forest Grove Cemetery — Canton, Missouri | June 2026

When my mom, Lois Thornton, passed away in May 2025, I knew I wanted to her stone to be in Forest Grove Cemetery on the bluff overlooking Canton, Missouri and the Mississippi River alongside her parents Homer and Louise, her grandparents William and Lilly (Giegerich) Wagner, and her brother David. Even though David died of leukemia at just six years old when Lois was only 18 months, his memory profoundly shaped her entire life and inspired her career in nursing.

As I began making the arrangements, I discovered that my cousin Staryn still had the ashes of his father Will (who died in 2012) and my 1st cousin once removed Russell had the ashes of his father William F. Wagner (Homer’s brother who died in 2008). So I decided to expand the service into a broader family gathering and memorial honoring all four of Homer and Louise’s children and our extended lineage.

I had the headstone engraved with all four siblings: Lois, Elly (who passed in 2021), Will, and Paul, who is still living. Although Elly has a stone in Minneapolis, Will did not. We couldn’t resist teasing Paul about what it felt like to see his name on a gravestone. While it’s common for spouses to leave a blank date for the surviving partner, it must be a surreal feeling to stand over your own gravestone.

Gravestone for Lois, Elly, Paul and Will, children of Homer and Louise Wagner, Forest Grove Cemetery, Canton, Missouri. 2026 with Lois and Will’s ashes.

It was a beautiful, peaceful day, and we had the cemetery to ourselves. We cleaned the stones for David, Homer, and Louise, which had darkened over the years.

Then we sought out the graves of our many ancestors—including the Giegerich, Eckert, Vesper, and Barth families—and other relatives who lived in the Canton area for generations. I acted as tour guide, answering questions about the different ancestors and explaining the connections.

Family & Friends in Attendance

• Diana Thornton (Lois’s daughter) from Mississippi
• Staryn Wagner (Will’s son) from Austin, Texas
• Paul Wagner (Lois’s brother) and his wife Patty from Florida
• Keith Burdick (Elly’s son), his wife Jennifer, and children Turin, Elon, and Flynn from San Diego, California
• Glydewell Burdick (Elly’s son) from Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Ben Wagner (son of Homer’s brother Arnold) and his wife Cheryl from Buffalo, New York
• Jennie and Russell Wagner (children of Homer’s brother William F.) from Chicago, Illinois
• Kathy Hayden (dear friend of Elly) from Minneapolis, Minnesota

Gone By the River

After the cemetery, we headed down to the Mississippi River by Lock and Dam #2, which holds special historical significance for us because it houses transformers that Homer Wagner designed back in the 1930s. We had a picnic and scattered the rest of the ashes into the river.

In 1990 I wrote a song for my mom. It became the title song to my first CD. You can listen to it here: https://www.dianathornton.com/about-diana/my-music/

I used to think “the start of it all” in the last verse was the headwaters of the Mississippi river. But standing there with family as her ashes swirled and mixed with her brother’s and uncle’s ashes into the muddy waters of the Mississippi, I realized that for her, “the start of it all” was right there in Canton where her father and generations of our family were born, lived, and shaped our roots.

Gone by the River
By Diana Thornton 1990

Walk with me, let’s go down by the river;
There’s a place I would like you to see.
You’ll discover the soul of the river,
and the feeling of how to be free.

Remember me, I will keep you in my heart.
Follow if you will.
Time and place meet you at the water’s edge.
Gone by the river, goin’ home.

Watching boats as they wander the river,
Gently part of the living design.
Take me deep through the veins of the river.
Here and there will soon intertwine.

And if you go to the end of the river
can you tell where the ocean begins?
For the blood of the sea and the river
gives new life, returns again.

And when I die give me back to the river.
Take me up to the start of it all.
Send my ashes the course of the river
one more time my journey recall.

Gone by the river, goin’ home
And if they call, I’ll be gone by the river

Gallery of all photos: Click here

Ben and Paul sent me their photos. If you have any from the event, please upload them to my dropbox.