Where'd that lip go?

N&O Triangle Grammar Guide blog
"Dedicated earlier this month, the simple stone sanctuary honors 687 eloquent lips silenced"
How did that one guy lose his lip, to make it an odd number? Or should it say "pairs of lips," perhaps?
At first, when I read it as the blurb on the main news page, I though it was totally ridiculous but then realized the source was the Paul Green quote with the story. So only the counting of lips is ridiculous.