The Roman Catholic bishop of Allentown led services marking the 50th anniversary of Pennsylvania's Sheppton Mine Disaster, in which a cave-in trapped three miners 300 feet underground.
The Standard-Speaker of Hazleton reports that Bishop John Barres blessed the grave and placed a rosary on the tombstone of miner Louis Bova near the spot of the cave-in that buried him under tons of rock and dirt. His body was never recovered.
Two other miners survived the August 1963 collapse and were rescued after 14 days underground.
Bova's son, John Bova, said at the graveside service Wednesday that his “hat is off” to his father and the other miners who worked in a “dark and dangerous place.”
About 200 people attended a mass marking the anniversary earlier Wednesday.
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