US officials have removed a war veteran's SpongeBob SquarePants headstone, deeming it inappropriate. Source: AAP
AN Iraq war veteran's towering SpongeBob SquarePants headstone has been removed from her grave because officials at an historic Cincinnati cemetery have deemed it inappropriate for their traditional grounds.
The headstone of Kimberly Walker, 28, was made in the likeness of her favourite cartoon character and erected at Spring Grove Cemetery on October 10, almost eight months after she was found murdered in a Colorado hotel room.
Despite getting the cemetery's prior approval of the headstone's design - a smiling SpongeBob in an Army uniform, with Walker's name and rank - her family said on Monday that cemetery staff called them the day after it was installed to say it would have to come down.
The 2.1-metre headstone, along with a near-exact duplicate erected for Walker's living twin sister, have been removed and will not be allowed back up, cemetery President Gary Freytag said on Monday.
"We've decided that they aren't appropriate for our historic cemetery and they can't be displayed here," Freytag said, adding that the employee who approved the headstones made an inexplicable error in judgment, given the cemetery's traditional, stately appearance.
He said the cemetery was at fault and staff would meet with Walker's family on Tuesday to try to find a solution, which could include a more traditional gravestone bearing a small likeness of SpongeBob.
Freytag said Spring Grove was prepared to reimburse the family for each headstone, which cost a combined $US26,000 ($A26,990), and pay for new ones.
"I feel terrible that it got to this point but I'm hoping we can come out at the other end of the tunnel with a solution," he said.
Walker was an Army corporal assigned to the 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion and served two year-long tours of Iraq in 2006 and 2010 as a petroleum supply specialist.
She was found dead in a Colorado Springs hotel room on Valentine's Day this year, strangled and beaten to death. Her boyfriend, an army sergeant stationed nearby, was arrested and charged with her killing.
Walker's twin sister Kara, a US Navy information technician stationed in Italy, said the family was beyond distraught.
She said a lot of thought had gone into the gravestones, which she said were chosen because her sister loved SpongeBob, even outfitting her entire bedroom with the cartoon character's decorations.
"My sister served our country and most people try to accommodate veterans and try to take care of them," she said.
"For them not to accommodate and respect what my sister sacrificed, not only for my family, but for everyone else in this country, really bothers me."
She said the only way the cemetery could make it up to the family would be to put the headstones back.
"We want what we paid for and what I know my sister would have wanted."
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