Story Archive

That Bites

When Kenneth Ray Manis, 76, died at Parkridge Medical Center in Chattanooga, Tenn., his widow asked that he be buried with a few of his personal items, including his false teeth. Afterward, she was going through his things and found another man’s wallet — and her husband’s false teeth. The wallet belonged to her husband’s roommate at the hospital’s intensive care ward, and she surmised that her husband was buried with the other man’s teeth. Parkridge paid to have Manis disinterred so the teeth could be swapped out. “My husband is laying in his grave with this other man’s teeth,” Phyllis Manis said. “I just couldn’t let it be that way. I knew my husband wouldn’t want it that way.” A Parkridge spokeswoman said the hospital would also pay for new dentures for the unidentified roommate — he said he didn’t want the set recovered from the casket. (RC/Chattanoogan) ...He took the words right out of my mouth.