Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Brookhaven Memory Gardens -- The Very Beginning

"Several men from Shipp's flowers are looking over a spot for a memorial garden. A sign reads, 'Brookhaven Memory Gardens.' Mr (Don) Jackson made this photo for Mr Osmann.' -- Library caption.

Both photos from Don Jackson Collection -- LLF Library
Let the landscaping begin.  Not sure of the date, but I believe it was the early 1960s.  Comments welcomed here or on my Facebook page.

4 comments:

  1. The location was across the street from the Drive-In Theater on Hwy 51 North. My memory is fuzzy, but there were people actually interred there. Later on, maybe by the 70s, it went defunct due to construction or foundational problems, I can't remember all of the family conversations in the funeral home business. At some point, I think Morris Henderson and Jack Robinson (Hartman's) looked into purchasing it, but got out of it. Sonny said the bodies were exhumed and re-buried elsewhere, although he seems to think one was left behind?????

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  2. Isn't a church now built on that location?

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  3. Hi, Caroline. That dovetails with what Mike Windham recalls. Although the part about one being left behind is a new wrinkle. Good information. Thank you!

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  4. Its the home of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Several of these cemeteries across the state and nation flopped during that time frame. The cost of maintaining any cemetery is very high. Most were under funded and spent the trust fund on other things. The Sec State has made it very hard on current cemetery owners. One owner in Ms. let all his cemeteries go back to the Sec State with no money in their trust fund leaving families who had prepaid for their burial properties with nothing. He died before he went to jail.

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