Gardens of Memory Cemetery (Minden, Louisiana)
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Entrance to Gardens of Memory Cemetery at Lewisville Road, with office at 211 Murrell Street | |
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1957 |
| Location |
Minden, Webster Parish Louisiana, USA |
| Country | USA |
| Coordinates | 32°38′18″N 93°17′08″W / 32.63845°N 93.28542°WCoordinates: 32°38′18″N 93°17′08″W / 32.63845°N 93.28542°W |
Other cemeteries named "Gardens of Memory" are located in Muncie, and Marion, Indiana, and Houston County, Alabama. There is an Erath Gardens of Memory in Stephenville in Erath County, Texas, an Oakhaven Gardens of Memory in Gibson County, Tennessee, and a Resthaven Gardens of Memory in Baton Rouge. There are cemeteries named Garden of Memories in Paducah in Cottle County, Texas, Metairie in Jefferson Parish, and Jonesboro in Jackson Parish, Louisiana. There is a Woodlawn Garden of Memories Cemetery in Houston, Texas.
Gardens of Memory Cemetery is a modern cemetery in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. It was established in 1957 at 1527 Lewisville Road by Carlos S. Green (1908–1979) and Edward James Kleinegger (1906–1981), owners of the former Green-Kleinegger Funeral Home, since purchased and operated at 211 Murrell Street by the Rose-Neath Company of Shreveport.[1]
Green came to Minden in March 1944 as a funeral home manager from Many in Sabine Parish in western Louisiana, where he was co-owner of the former Dennis-Green Funeral Home[2] with Malcolm Oscar Dennis (1899-1944), a native of Leesville in Vernon Parish and a veteran of World War I who died of a heart attack shortly after arriving in Minden.[3]
Like other similarly named cemeteries, Gardens of Memory has only flat grave markers of varying styles, with a few upright monuments erected by the cemetery itself to designate various sections of the grounds. Minden-area burials prior to 1957 occurred either at smaller nearby rural cemeteries or at the older, still functioning, historic Minden Cemetery at the intersections of Pine Street, Goodwill Road, and Bayou Avenue.[1]
There is an original owners' plot for Green, Kleinegger, and their wives, Vasta Smith Green (1908–2002), who retired as a teacher at E.S. Richardson Elementary School, and Augusta "Pat" Kleinegger (1912–1964). The different "gardens" include The Lord's Supper, Good Shepherd, Prayer, Faith, and Youth. A sixth garden, The Cross, has been opened on the right side of the cemetery, as the grounds expand.[4]
Notable interments
- J. D. Batton (1911-1981), sheriff of Webster Parish from 1952 to 1964
- Paul A. Brown (1932-1996), mayor of Minden from 1989 to 1990
- Everett Doerge (1935-1998), educator and state representative from 1992 to 1998
- Cecil C. Lowe (1923-2013), Minden attorney, city judge from 1954 to 1976, Louisiana 26th Judicial District Court judge from 1976 to 1988
- Charles A. Marvin (1929-2003), district attorney of Bossier and Webster parishes (1971-1975); judge of the Louisiana Circuit Court of Appeal for the Second District (1975-1999)
- Bill Robertson (1938-2013), mayor of Minden from 1991 to 2013[5][6]
- Tommy Tomlinson (1930-1982), guitarist associated with Johnny Horton inductee of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame[7]
References
- 1 2 Earlene Mendenhall Lyle and Barbara Mendenhall McLemore, Gardens of Memory Cemetery, 2002, p. 95
- ↑ "Carlos S. Green Is New Manager of Funeral Home", Minden Herald, March 24, 1944, p. 1
- ↑ "Heart Attack Fatal to Local Funeral Director", Minden Herald, January 28, 1944, p. 1
- ↑ Lyle, "Gardens of Memory Cemetery", p. vi.
- ↑ "Mayor Billy H. "Bill" Robertson". The Shreveport Times. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
- ↑ "Sgt. Joshua A. Tomlinson". findagrave.com. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
- ↑ "Gerald Delmar "Tommy" Tomlinson". findagrave.com. May 10, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2015.