So who puts the flowers on the graves at Pioneer Cemetery every Memorial Day weekend?
Judy Meridith with flowers for the Pioneer Cemetery.
by Sherry Kline, special to Sumner Newscow — Every year on Memorial Day weekend, folks drive by the Wellington Pioneer Cemetery and wonder “who puts the flowers on the settlers’ graves?”
And sometimes, they ask.
Just last week, Lina Glick, Crested Butte, Colorado, asked a local resident that question.
“We noticed the flowers when we drove through town,” Glick said, “the cemetery looks really beautiful with all the flowers. They really catch the eye.”
For the past 23 years, since Memorial Day of 1999, Judy Meridith and her husband Bill have placed flowers on the graves at the Wellington Pioneer Cemetery. They’ve done it quietly, not wanting any recognition, and not agreeing to be interviewed until now.
Growing up near Oxford, Meridith accompanied her parents, Kenny and Dody Bliss, to several local cemeteries to place flowers on their family’s graves to honor their memories.
“We used to pick lilacs and take them to the cemetery — especially in Corbin,” Meridith said.
The Merediths continue to honor their family on Memorial Day by visiting graves in Oxford, Mayfield, Wellington, Cheney, Argonia, and Corbin.
What prompted Meridith to include decorating the graves at the Pioneer Cemetery in their tradition?
“Sympathy,” Meridith said, adding that she “just felt sorry because the cemetery looked so sad with no flowers.”
So in 1999, she told her husband that she wanted to decorate the graves at the Pioneer Cemetery too. She bought several dozen plastic flower bouquets and that first year, and for several years following, Meridith’s daughter and granddaughter, Lisa Baird, and her daughter Bliss helped Meridith place flowers on the graves.
“Bliss was just two years old that first year,” Meridith said, “she was just a toddler.”
“Bliss used to read all the tombstones when she was little,” Meridith said, “to see if there were young children buried there.”
And Meridith said that a lot of the burials were young children.
“There are a lot of babies buried there,” Meridith said.
Meridith appreciates the help she gets from the cemetery’s sexton, James Hearlson.
“James calls and tells me when the cemetery is ready,” Meridith said, “that’s really nice of him because he doesn’t have to do that.”
This year, rain and storms had Meridith considering not doing it, especially because her husband was unable to help this year.
When Randy Daniels offered to help Meridith, they decided to go ahead. They packed up five big plastic tubs of flowers and placed them around the tombstones.
“I just couldn’t not do it,” Meridith said, “I’ve been doing this for 23 years. The flowers are getting as old and worn out as I am.”
Does Meridith have someone she considers a favorite among the burials?
“The black soldier gets two flowers each year,” Meridith said, adding that the stones with more than one name each get more than one flower, too.
“When I drive past these old cemeteries, I just want to do them all,” Meridith said, “if I ever have to quit, it’s going to break my heart.”
