Mass. panel: No profanity on rapper's headstone

LYNN, Mass. (AP) - Commissioners at a Massachusetts cemetery have said no to profanity on headstones.

Sonny Santiago was a rapper who died in a car crash in February. Commissioners at Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn this week unanimously rejected his family's request to inscribe his gravestone with a song verse that included profanity.

The commission became aware of the language when the company inscribing the 3-foot tall memorial submitted drawings to commissioners.

Chairman Arthur Dulong tells The Daily Item of Lynn (http://bit.ly/10kALVH ) the commission had never had to deal with profanities on memorials before.

Santiago's sister-in-law, Angela Ventola, says city officials contacted the family about the inscription and they agreed to have the gravestone inscribed with a different, profanity-free verse from a song Santiago wrote.