LOS GATOS — Inside a single hearse, five coffins sat side by side. They were so small — like stout shoeboxes wrapped in shimmering white fabric — that all of them could easily fit in the back seat of a car. Any car.

“There are three boys and two girls,” funeral director Gary Cayton said, nodding at the containers decked with dainty sprays of baby’s breath and pink carnations. White roses for the boys, yellow for the girls. All had been prepared for burial by Darling & Fischer funeral home in Los Gatos. All went nameless and without details. They had been abandoned and forgotten in places such as hospitals, trash cans and alleyways in Santa Clara County.

“I’ve been doing this since the beginning,” said Cayton, referring to quiet funeral services for these babies, held since 2005. “I might be retiring soon, but then again, because this is so special, maybe not yet.”

Little Treasures, a group headed by determined Hollister resident Virginia Jones, has turned utter sadness into dignity by refusing to allow unfortunate babies to be anonymously cremated and forgotten. Instead, a funeral home prepares the infants for burial, then places them in caskets. A graveside service with music and a minister follows. After police, emergency workers, officials and friends of the organization say their simple goodbyes and leave, the babies are buried.

“These babies did not ask to be brought into the world, and they certainly did not ask to be abandoned,” said Jones, a supervisor for American Medical Response, the ambulance service. “We don’t know the situation of the families or why they felt they needed to do this with their babies. But we are here, and we are happy to provide what those families could not, for as long as we possibly can.”

The funeral service Wednesday at Los Gatos Memorial Park was the first one this year for Little Treasures. The legal and technical maneuvers required to prepare the babies can be lengthy and challenging before they are handed over to the nonprofit group. It helps that county officials back the efforts of the organization.

“I think this is important because it kind of honors all the things these babies never got to do,” said Claudine Ratcliffe, an investigator for the Santa Clara County coroner, who attended the service for the five babies.

Little Treasures began a decade ago with a moment of clarity between Ratcliffe and Jones. The latter was working on a powerful, statewide program called Every 15 Minutes, which teaches teens about the perils of drinking and driving. The program re-enacts fatal crashes, DUI arrests, legal charges and even mock death certificates that hopefully shock teens and their parents with the possibilities of tragedy.

“We were filming the morgue portion for 15 minutes when I saw this odd little shelf holding containers,” Jones said. “I asked, ‘What’s that?’ And Ratcliffe said, ‘Those are our infant indigents, left and unclaimed by families or parents.’ “

Jones was haunted after hearing about the babies destined to be cremated, so she started asking friends in law enforcement and with funeral homes and cemeteries if they’d be interested in developing a new plan.

“Everybody said, ‘You’re crazy, but if you do it, I’m in,’ ” she says.

While most cases are in Santa Clara County, the organization will do whatever it can to accommodate any need. Four years ago, a homeless man digging in a Dumpster behind a Jack in the Box in Newark came upon a miniature corpse.

“We did the service in Newark,” Jones said, “but we buried him in this county.”

The five tiny coffins were carried from the hearse to the gravesite in the children’s section of the sprawling cemetery by a California Highway Patrol officer, a paramedic, two funeral directors and the Rev. Daniel Herrera of Cathedral of Faith in San Jose, who officiated the brief service.

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me,” said Herrera, quoting one of a few comforting Bible verses, “and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not only me, but also my Father who sent me.”

Kathleen Lopez, also from Cathedral of Faith, sang a capella versions of “Amazing Grace” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” over the five coffins sitting on a folding table. The service made no mention of names or memories, yet one woman wiped away tears.

“That was just compassion,” said Sonnya Simpson, of Los Gatos, about weeping for children she didn’t know at all. “It was a life. No matter how tiny or how unnoticed a life, you must take time to feel something and to pray that their souls do get laid to rest.”

Simpson, now undergoing cancer treatments, says she intends to help Jones with fundraisers so the program can spread to other nearby counties. “Most people are clueless that this kind of thing happens.”

Others at the service said the babies deserve the loving attention because they never got the chance to mint any precious memories.

“There will be no baby pictures, no first steps, no kindergarten and no diplomas of any kind,” said Ratcliffe, the coroner who deals with hard-edged death every day, but as treasurer for Little Treasures admits to tenderness. “We do this because of the soft spot in our hearts for the munchkins.”

Contact David E. Early at 408-920-5836. Follow him at Twitter.com/DavidEarlySr.