(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The owner of an Elgin funeral home is hoping people show up Wednesday for the funeral of a 71-year-old Vietnam veteran who died unclaimed by family.
The administrator of the Elgin nursing home where John James Murphy lived says Murphy joked around with the nurses -- and sometimes spoke to them in their Filipino language.
Murphy was president of the residents council.
But his family? No one at the nursing home knew much at all about them.
"They looked and they couldn't find anything."
Daniel Symonds, owner of the Symonds-Madison Funeral Home, says despite everyone's best efforts, Murphy's family couldn't be reached.
Symonds says his phone has been ringing almost non-stop: People wanting to do something. Like the woman who heard about Murphy and volunteered to play the organ at his funeral.
"My wife and I were sitting there and we were just like, 'Oh my God, people care.'"
Symonds is hoping the city of Elgin turns out for the funeral of Murphy, a Vietnam veteran.
He'll be buried with honors at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood.
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