Bedfordtimesregister.com - 'Graveyard groomer' helps restore stones at cemetery

by Mike Lesko

Editor

Bedford -- John Walters loves the feeling he gets from fixing up aging gravestones.

"It's like you're saving history and artwork from more than 100 years ago," he said. "It seems like you are righting a wrong.

"So many times, you look at the surnames on the graves and then look at the nearby roads -- roads that were named after these people," he added. "They are the people who carved out this area."

Walters, a gravestone restorer, was summoned to work at Bedford Cemetery during the last full week in June.

"It can be slow, pains-taking work," Walters said.

Walters, who calls himself the "Graveyard groomer," came at the request of Janet Caldwell, director of the Bedford Historical Society. She encountered Walters, who was teaching at a workshop last year, and realized how he could upgrade the cemetery on Broadway Avenue.

"He is a national expert," she said.

Walters got interested in fixing gravestones while working for the cemetery department in Fayette County in Indiana.

"I fell in love with graveyards," he said. "I discovered a passion. I convinced them that they needed to do more with graveyards than mow the grass."

Walters, 52, started his own business a dozen years ago. Three years ago, he took on Kelly Luke, 36, as an assistant. They are old friends from Connorsville, Ind.

They travel throughout Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois during the non-winter months. When it rains, they erect a tent-like shelter and keep working.

"Each time, I am working on someone's family stone," Luke said. "It's a great feeling to fix them up. These were the pioneers of the area."

Walters spent a day of his own time scouting out which Bedford gravestones needed the most work. His guidelines were to repair old stones and also prevent leaning stones from tipping over.

He said gravestones from the 1800s, typically marble and limestone, are the ones that usually need upgrading the most.

"They are soft stones," he said. "The acid rain constantly wears at them."

He said granite, a more weather-resistant stone, was used more often starting in the early 1900s.

Walters said the hardest part of reassembling crumbled grave markers is finding all the pieces. Sometimes, shards of marble and limestone are buried in the ground less than an inch from the surface.

"Old graveyards are like jigsaw puzzles," Walters said. "We probe into the ground to find the pieces."

Walters said Bedford Cemetery is well maintained. Sometimes, he said he and Luke must cut their way through shrubs and thorns to reach unkempt grave sites elsewhere.

"Lawnmowers can do a lot of damage to gravestones, but we haven't seen any of that here ... Bedford is lucky to have its caretaker," he said, referring to Scott Spencer, Bedford cemetery commissioner.

Walters estimated he and Luke restored 25 to 30 stones at Bedford Cemetery.

"I was very pleased with his work," Caldwell said, adding that she hopes to bring him back again after more money is raised.

Next, Walt ers and Luke plan to head to Romeo, Mich., north of Detroit. It will be Walters' seventh trip to the cemetery there.

"Most cemeteries need work," Walters said. "I'm happy to share my knowledge because that's the closest we get to immortality."

E-mail: mlesko@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3167