The gravesite of Justin Clinton, 10, is pictured here as it appeared in the Overton Municipal Cemetery after the city removed the decorations per its ordinance. The ordinance says graves must be kept clean/clear of decorations so as not to interfere with the operation of mowers and weedeaters. But Justin’s mother Serenia Gooch Clinton said loved ones should be free to decorate the graves in respectful ways as they have for years. Courtesy

At least once a week, Rusk County resident Serenia Gooch Clinton makes the drive to Overton to visit her son.

The grave for 10-year-old Justin Clinton, who died in 2009 after being mauled by pit bulls, serves as a place Mrs. Clinton can go to remember and celebrate her baby boy.

At Christmas time, she puts out a tree with decorations. For his birthday in April, she brings balloons. And others do the same.

People have left angel figurines, a baseball glove and a cross in front of his heart-shaped headstone. Flowers have filled the vase.

But on Monday, when Mrs. Clinton visited, she found all the decorations gone. No angels. No cross. No baseball glove. No flowers. And she cried.

“Anything I buy for him and put out there is like a gift to him,” said Mrs. Clinton, 44, a home health caregiver from Leverett’s Chapel. “I can’t give it to him personally. I only have a grave to put it on. And the same with what other people bring. It’s like a grown-up just taking his toys away. If he were alive, it would hurt him. And it hurts me to see them take his toys away from the grave.”

It’s not just about her son, though. It’s about all the graves out there. Every person should have the opportunity to decorate the gravesites as they want, she said.

But the city of Overton sees the situation differently. On Aug. 20, 2015, the city formally took over operation of the Overton Municipal Cemetery, even though it had informally taken over operations in 2011 after the Overton Cemetery Association determined it could no longer operate the place.

The formal transition was a necessary step so the city could implement a property tax to generate revenue for the operation and maintenance of the cemetery.

The tax is 5 cents per $100 of assessed property value for Overton residents and generates about $40,000 per year.

With the formal change, the city also adopted rules and regulations regarding the cemetery.

City Manager Charles Cunningham said these rules are not new. They have been on the books for years, and the city simply started enforcing them.

He said they tried to do it in a respectful way, wrapping and boxing up items left at gravesites and holding them until family members could come get them, but the changes still have left people such as Mrs. Clinton unhappy.

The primary rules at issue here are related to the decoration of lots. The city’s ordinance, which is posted on the city’s website, calls for graves to be kept clean and clear of decorations “so as not to interfere with the safe operations of mowers and weed eaters.”

“Absolutely no benches, yard art, trinkets, solar lights or pole flags will be allowed,” it reads.

People can always put decorations in the vases attached to the monument. However, if they become unsightly, they will be removed, the rules read.

A key part of the rules say, “Certain decorative or other adornments that have been placed in the cemetery in years past are no longer allowed.”

This includes gravesite borders, benches, chimes and statues. In addition, graves cannot be covered with anything other than turf.

Some people, including Mrs. Clinton, used to cover the gravesites with rock, in part because there was no grass. That is expressly prohibited in the rules.

“The whole intent of this thing is to make it better,” Cunningham said. “It’s not to irritate anybody, or be draconian. … The motive is to try to make it better.”

Cunningham said these rules are universal in almost all cemeteries – he said they researched it statewide. 

City officials attempted to communicate these changes to those affected when possible, but Cunningham said the records they inherited from the cemetery association were incomplete and unorganized.

The association kept up with things as best they could with the limited resources they had, he said.

However, the city has since transitioned to a computerized system and volunteers are transferring the information over to that system.

The city also launched an annual cemetery clean-up day, the first of which happened two years ago, and addressed a lot of problems with dead trees, overgrown hedges and sunken graves, among other things.

“It’s much more respectful of the people that are buried there now than what it was before we were able to get the funds to do this,” Cunningham said.

Still, there is much more work planned, including rebuilding the roads inside the cemetery and installing drainage and irrigation systems, Cunningham said.

Grass also has been a problem, with only about half of the cemetery having it. He said the city has planted some grass and it should sprout in about a month.

The plan is to plant grass and put in sod where they can, so grass will grow year-round. This will take money and time, he said.

Cunningham said when the city began to enforce the rules, they attempted to notify existing plot owners with the contact information they had.

They did not put up signs in the cemetery because it detracts from the overall appearance, Cunningham said. In addition, they hand out a set of rules to anyone who purchases a plot.

However, Cunningham acknowledged people who are grieving the death of a loved one aren’t likely to read the rules at that time.

Still, he said, the city’s aim is to improve the cemetery’s appearance and maintain the dignity of it.

“I think people have to appreciate that we came into a situation that was less than ideal and we’ve tried very hard to make it better over the last couple of years,” Cunningham said. “Again, I think personally people that are buried there really deserve to be in a very nice environment and it shows respect to them by making every effort to improve the appearance and the quality and operation of the cemetery.”

However, while Mrs. Clinton might agree with that motive, she disagrees with how it has played out.

What she wants for herself and others is the freedom to decorate and adorn a loved one’s grave in a respectful but personal way.

“I would like to see it back the way it was because it wasn’t hurting anybody,” she said. “It was there for years. … It wasn’t like it was messy. It was neat and pretty.”

 

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