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burialstate

A Grave Marker From the County — and Treble Damages If Somebody Takes It

The county commission of veteran affairs may furnish a suitable and appropriate marker for the grave of each veteran buried within the county, placed to permanently mark and designate the grave for memorial purposes, paid from the commission’s own funds. Taking a marker so provided is a simple misdemeanor and carries liability for three times its cost.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

The county commission of veteran affairs may furnish a suitable and appropriate marker for the grave of each veteran buried within the county, placed to permanently mark and designate the grave for memorial purposes, paid from the commission’s own funds. Taking a marker so provided is a simple misdemeanor and carries liability for three times its cost.

What it's worth: Grave marker furnished by the county commission; three times its cost recoverable if it is taken

  • No price is claimed. The section sets no figure and leaves the marker’s specification to the commission, so what "suitable and appropriate" buys varies by county.
  • The treble liability in §35B.16A runs to the commission or whoever furnished the marker, not to the family, so it is a deterrent rather than a payment to you.
  • This sits beside the federal headstone or marker the VA supplies. The section does not say which comes first where both are available.

Who is entitled to it

  • The marker follows the veteran, as §35.1 defines one.
  • You are in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Ask the commission in the county where the veteran is BURIED, not where they lived. The section is written around burial "within the limits of the county".
  2. 2The word is "may", not "shall". Unlike the interment duty in §35B.14, furnishing a marker is discretionary, so a county that has exhausted the fund can decline — which is why the request is worth making in writing.
  3. 3Bring the discharge. Eligibility runs on the definition of veteran in §35.1, and the county recorder’s file under §331.608 is the local place that record usually sits.
  4. 4The expense is paid from the funds raised under chapter 35B — the county appropriation the board of supervisors makes under §35B.14 — so a commission that has money for relief usually has money for markers.
  5. 5If a marker is stolen or removed, say the number. §35B.16A makes taking possession or control of a marker provided under §35B.16, with intent to deprive the owner, a simple misdemeanor REGARDLESS OF THE VALUE of the marker, and makes the taker liable for three times its cost.
  6. 6The reimbursement is payable to the county commission of veteran affairs or to whichever person furnished the marker. A family that paid for the marker themselves is the person who furnished it.
  7. 7Veterans commemorative property has a further protection at §37A.1, which is worth raising alongside §35B.16A where a memorial rather than a single grave is involved.
Form
Request to the county commission of veteran affairs
File with
County commission of veteran affairs in the county of burial
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThe marker section and the burial section are constantly run together. They are different in the one way that matters: §35B.14 makes the commission RESPONSIBLE for interring a veteran who died without sufficient means, while §35B.16 says the commission MAY furnish a marker. One is a duty, the other is a discretion.
CorrectionThe neighbouring section on maintaining graves is gone. §35B.17, "Maintenance of graves", was repealed by 2024 Acts, ch 1047, §11, and §35B.15 was repealed in 2014 and folded into §35B.14. Guides still citing either number are citing repealed law.
Worth knowingThe treble-damages clause is unusually blunt: it applies "regardless of the value of the marker", which removes the usual small-value defence to a theft charge. That drafting exists because bronze markers are stolen for scrap.
Known gapHow individual counties specify the marker, and whether any county publishes a standard design or a per-marker budget, was not researched this session — the Code leaves both to the commission.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.