Day of respect shown in toil

Spring Hill Cemetery's cleanup tries to undo the work of vandals and nature.

By CHANDRA BROADWATER, Times Staff Writer
Published September 18, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - Headstones come into light as the motors of weed trimmers buzz. Sweat begins to drip. It's time again to remember the dead at Spring Hill Cemetery.

Situated at the end of a sandy, twisted dirt path, this modest clearing in the woods is where some of Brooksville's black residents have buried their mothers, fathers, uncles and aunts for nearly 150 years - as far back as 1858. In line with tradition, rows of burial vault lids stick up from the earth. Here, off tree-canopied Fort Dade Avenue, loved ones lie.

But around the 3-acre site, as about 20 volunteers scrub away at marble and trim overgrown brush during the cemetery's annual cleanup, beer cans hang suspended in bushes. There are overturned headstones, some dragged far from where they were originally placed.

Along the entryway, an old couch and mattress have been dumped by someone who did not want to take them any farther.

With hands on her hips, 80-year-old Alyce Walker shakes her head as she looks around.

"This was land given to the colored people to bury their dead a long time ago," she says. "Now people come in here and party, do that lover's lane type stuff and leave their trash and vandalize the graves."

Along with leading the annual cleanup at the cemetery, Walker has been pushing for a fence and gate to be installed, just like what might be found at any other respectable place where the dead are buried.

A gate would keep out people who don't belong - people who in the past have burned faux flowers, supposed to be stuck into the earth until they fade.

Walker, who has been a lifelong Brooksville resident, says it costs $125 to be buried at Spring Hill Cemetery. With few burials, it's hard to pay for the upkeep, let alone a fence and maybe some lights.

Before she joins her many ancestors buried at the cemetery, she hopes to make the graveyard a place to be proud of. She wants to create a record of those who are buried there, and the parts of history they represent.

"With a little help from the community and a lot from God, we'll get it done," she says, walking by three women as they scrubbed a grave marker with their brooms and some bleach.

Six-year-old Chyna Thomas and her 34-year-old mother, Yolanda, watch as the marble fades from black to brown to almost white. Grandmother Margie Thomas stands by, ready to plant her yellow plastic bag full of fake flowers. The 75-year-old wipes sweat from her brow, then pulls a bouquet out of her bag.

William Moody Timmons - born 1858, died 1947 - will get white carnations this year.

Chandra Broadwater can be reached at cbroadwater@sptimes.com or 352 848-1432.

[Last modified September 17, 2007, 21:26:30]