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, WWI “Hello Girl” veteran Marie Edmee LeRoux received her veteran’s grave marker at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Maryland, Her grave had been unmarked for over 70 years.

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.

Read the entire article on the VA web site.
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