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One final thought

Are Tampa's cemeteries really full? Not at all. But on the issue of private or city burial, the plot thickens.

By RICK GERSHMAN
Published June 23, 2006

DOWNTOWN - The year 1901 was a bad one for the Booker family.

Samuel, the patriarch, died in June, just shy of his 47th birthday. Perhaps it was from a broken heart: He and his wife, Nancy, lost their daughter Mildred, only 18 months old, in February. Son Samuel Jr., not quite 5, followed in May.

They're buried together in Oaklawn Cemetery in downtown Tampa. The Bookers' story is one of hundreds at Oaklawn, Tampa's first cemetery, deeded in 1850 at Morgan Street as a resting place for "white and slave, rich and poor."

Since then, 1,125 people have been interred at Oaklawn.

But if you die, you can't be buried at Oaklawn or at the three other city-owned and -operated cemeteries, for that matter.

That might be about to change at Woodlawn, the largest city cemetery.

In the late 1800s, Woodlawn was the place to go to your final rest. It was conceived in 1887 when Oaklawn filled up and the City Council determined it needed a cemetery well outside the then-modest city limits. The next year, the city purchased 40 acres at N Boulevard and Plymouth Street in Tampa Heights.

Over the years, the city sold peripheral portions to two Jewish cemeteries and Showman's Rest, a burial ground for carnival workers, leaving Woodlawn with about 26 acres. The area has numerous other small cemeteries, such as the L'Unione Italiana cemetery north of Ybor.

Inside Woodlawn, headstones feature prominent Tampa names such as Greco and Robles, Linebaugh and Lopez, Mabry and Ippolito.

But in 1972, the city suspended active sales in Woodlawn, which also filled quickly. In 1986, an arson on the property burned many of the interment records.

Only last year, city officials discovered that Woodlawn had a lot more space than they had realized. Using ground-penetrating radar, they determined that Potter's Field, where the poor and indigent were buried in unmarked graves, was smaller than they'd thought.

"It turns out they'd left a tremendous amount of space in Potter's Field," said Marsha Carter, who oversees the city-owned cemeteries for Tampa's Parks and Recreation Department.

If the City Council agrees, Woodlawn, the site of more than 20,500 burials over the years, could begin accepting sales for plots again.

"It's still in the discussion process," Carter said. "But the likelihood is very good."

The city has identified 273 unsold spaces at Woodlawn, where there is a demand for opening new sales for a couple of reasons.

One is that some people want to be laid to rest alongside family members or have visited Woodlawn and enjoyed it. Another is that the city can offer less expensive burials, on average, than those at privately owned cemeteries.

While the other two city-owned cemeteries, Jackson Heights and Marti, are full, Tampa doesn't lack for space to bury people.

Garden of Memories and Myrtle Hill Memorial Park, the largest privately owned cemeteries in Tampa, have plenty of space. Divided by Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard Jr. just east of 40th Street, they are owned by Stewart Enterprises, one of the nation's largest corporate operators of funeral homes and cemeteries.

Each is about 100 acres, and "we estimate we have 30 to 40 acres of expansion space between the two," said Tom Corn, the Tampa director for Stewart, which also owns and runs local funeral homes, such as Blount & Curry and Boza & Roel.

Corn said he didn't foresee any need for new local cemeteries in the near future.

"That is way out for a number of years," he said. "Starting a new cemetery is such a tremendous commitment in terms of state requirements.''

No one has opened a cemetery in Hillsborough County in decades. The closest new one is Trinity in Pasco County.

Though the aging of the baby boomer generation and Florida's large senior population might suggest otherwise, there are other reasons we should have plenty of room to bury our dead.

"It's kind of a myth when people say we're running out of cemetery property," said Julio Gonzalez-Roel, who owns JGR Funeral Home in Tampa.

"A lot of people these days are doing cremation instead of ground burial or mausoleum burial," said Gonzalez-Roel, 44, who has been in the business most of his life.

"Back when we started, maybe 88, 89 percent of people were buried, and 10 or 11 percent cremated,'' he said. "Now my business here is about 30, 35 percent cremation."

And there's no more need for a Potter's Field in the city. Decades ago, Hillsborough County took over burial of people whose bodies were unclaimed or who did not have enough money to pay for burial.

The public service, required by state statutes, is run by the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office.

Most indigents' bodies are cremated because that is the least expensive option, averaging $329, said Dick Bailey, the office's manager. The average cost for the county to bury someone in 2005 was $1,400.

But the county still does burials, Bailey said.

"By statute, if a relative expresses the preference that the person be buried, we have to make reasonable accommodation to do that," he said.

The county contracts with Rest Haven Memorial Park in Jackson Heights to handle the burials. Last year, the county managed the cremation of 321 bodies and 86 burials.

Carter has overseen the city cemeteries for almost 20 years. But she has never lost her reverence for her clientele.

When visiting the cemeteries, she said, "I do try very hard not to walk over people."

But areas of Woodlawn have so many unidentified plots that there's not much she can do.

"I'm always apologizing to them: I'm so sorry for walking on you."

Rick Gershman can be reached at rgershman@sptimes.com or 226-3431.

[Last modified June 22, 2006, 12:12:22]