US cemetery removes Spongebob headstone, statues from Army Sergeant's grave

The mother of a former United States Army Sergeant said Monday (October 21) that the cemetery that her daughter is buried at removed large monuments of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants installed in her honor.

Deborah Walker's daughter Kimberly Walker loved the cartoon character so much that when she died, allegedly at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, her family decided to honor the former solider by erecting large monuments of the animated character.

"We went through the channels to get these plots and also to get these monuments and then you just turn around and walk away like we're nothing," said Deborah Walker.

Deborah Walker says that the behavior of Spring Grove Cemetery has been disrespectful to her family and to her deceased daughter.

"They had no compassion for what we were going through," said Deborah Walker.

Deborah purchased six plots at Spring Grove Cemetery in March and had two unique monuments of SpongeBob SquarePants wearing military uniforms made.

Each monument weights 7,000 pounds (3175.15 kilos) and stands 6 feet, 8 inches tall (203 cm) and four feet wide (121.9cm).

The monuments, built out of Vermont granite, cost more than 13,000 dollars each and the Walkers say the cemetery approved the statues.

The design was done by artist Tara Chambers who said she met with cemetery officials to approve the project.

"In the meetings that we attended it seemed like we had the acceptance of the staff and personnel there so it seemed like it was going to be a great project," said Tara Chambers.

Just over a week ago the family of Kimberly Walkers was told that the monuments had to be removed because they did not fit with the historic cemetery's guidelines so they were removed one day after they were put in place.

"I've received calls from a lot of friends because me and my sister both were in the military so a lot of military friends seen it knew about the whole SpongeBob I talked so much about it and was so excited," said Kimberly's sister Kara Walker.

The Spring Grove Cemetery admitted to local media that an employee had initially approved the design but that the design was not approved by senior management and cannot remain. — Reuters