NCA’s Cemetery Restoration Project thrives

Since 2020, the National Cemetery Administration’s (NCA) Cemetery Restoration Project has formed partnerships that aim to educate communities about private cemetery owners and the caretakers who honor and memorialize Veterans buried without headstones. The restoration project also restores these private resting places to reflect the dignity and honor these Veterans deserve for their service and sacrifice to our nation.

Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Matthew Quinn has pushed for NCA to continue aiding with private cemetery restoration efforts. In his testimony to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee earlier this year, he stated, “Every grave, every resting place of a Veteran ought to be a national shrine, not just if they’re in a national cemetery, but every place they are laid to rest.”

Latest restorations

On April 13, our partners at the Friends of Lebanon Cemetery in York, Pennsylvania, held a dedication ceremony to unveil the restored headstones for five Veterans, one of whom served in the Civil War.

On the same day, NCA’s partner Diane Z. Christopher, a caretaker of Sacred Hearts Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Dinwiddie, Virginia, had more than 50 volunteers from the military, scouts and churches gather in support of a clean-up effort on the 6-acre property.

On May 3, the Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Washington D.C., held a ceremony to unveil a headstone for “Hello Girl” Edmee LeRoux—who served in War World I, died in 1945, and was buried in an unmarked grave. Thanks to the work of her family, along with NCA, the World War One Centennial Commission, the Doughboy Foundation and the Military Women’s Memorial, LeRoux—who was denied Veteran status until 1979—finally received the recognition she deserves. 

Last year, NCA partnered with the historical African American Saints and Sinners Cemetery, located in Oak Hill, Florida, that was used as a dump site in the 1980s. According to researchers, 22 gravesites of Veterans who served in WWI and WWII were discovered, and the history of this cemetery is now being turned into a documentary film.

The NCA team also provided best practices to help the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, erect and restore a headstone for Cpl. Silas Sappington, who died in 1922.

National appeal

The effort to ensure no Veteran is forgotten has taken nationwide appeal. Media stories include a concerned man cleaning headstones of Veterans buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri; the Daughters of the Revolution in Omaha, Nebraska, helping locals to install new headstones for Revolutionary War soldiers, Isaac Sadler and John McConnell; a local church in  Hauppage, New York, dedicating a headstone for Alfred Griffin, a formerly enslaved Union soldier; and about 299 headstones being restored at the Historic Fairview Cemetery in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Veterans buried there between 1926 and 1988.

Moreover, these activities have a direct impact on the VA Veterans Legacy Memorial, where nearly 10 million of our nation’s heroes now have individual commemorative pages. Each time an unmarked grave is marked, that Veteran gets added to these pages, which currently reflect an increase of more than 5 million Veterans over the past year alone.

For this year’s Memorial Day, let us remember that these stories and many more demonstrate the significance of cemetery preservation and restoration. The honor and dignity bestowed to these sacred spaces and service members should never be understated, nor the efforts of individuals to tell their stories undervalued.

For more information email us at VANCACOMREL@va.gov