For nearly 15 years, Judge Ashe III has overseen operations at the city’s Riverside Oakview Cemetery.
Having begun just prior to the flood of 1994, Ashe was baptized by fire — or water actually — with that early on-the-job experience.
Today, the cemetery has long recovered from the tragic events of that July, and the subsequent flooding in 1998.
“It was a time of trial and tribulation,” said Ashe, who not only is general manager of the cemetery and city parks maintenance, but is also licensed as a funeral director and embalmer. “It was a terrible event, of course.”
During the 1994 event, about 400 caskets were dislodged, including the disturbance of nearly the entire Jewish section that descended into a sinkhole, said Ashe, who noted that restoration was completed by March 1995. In the 1998 event, only 12 caskets were dislodged.
“The first flood was really devastating, but by the second one we understood more how to handle it and it wasn’t as bad,” he said. “So we’ve grown from the process.”
During the floods, even cemetery personnel had limited access to the area, which was nearly taken over by Georgia Emergency Management and Federal Emergency Management and protected by the National Guard, said Ashe.
“Even we had to go through strict security to get in here,” he recalled.
The oldest section of the cemetery is Oakview, begun in the 1850s and home to the burial site of city founder Nelson Tift and a couple dozen descendants in the family plot, the largest single family plot in the entire 80 plus acre cemetery. Here and throughout the entire cemetery can often be found small Confederate flags, placed on occasion by the Daughters of Confederate Veterans on the graves of soldiers who fought for the Confederate States of America. When Oakview began to fill up, Riverside was opened for burials around 1920, said Ashe.
Other notable and prominent Albanians buried here include Albany physician Dr. Joseph Jordan, Albany State University administrator Robert Cross, attorney and civil rights leader C.B. King, former Albany mayor and developer of Radium Springs Resort Thad Huckabee, former Superior Court Judge Asa D. Kelly Jr. and renowned architect Edward Vason Jones. Other prominent family names include Slappey, Wetherbee, Phillips, Inman and Gortatowsky.
Among those support staff Ashe relies on is Sandy Mosely, cemetery coordinator since 1985. A kind and compassionate woman, Mosely is charged with assisting families and funeral home representatives with burial arrangements. In addition, she researches lot ownership and collects burial fees for the city.
Part of her responsibility is in dealing with those deceased who died with no financial resources for burial. In those cases, estimated at 12-18 per year, Mosely works with the Department of Family and Children Services to ensure a respectable service and burial is conducted in the “pauper field,” which now contains about 350 plots.
Neither can recall any unusual burials, though on occasion people will offer a toast and drink to the deceased following a ceremony, said Mosely. One of the largest services they can recall was that of the late Greg Pratt, a celebrated football player for Auburn University, who died at age 20.
“They brought busloads of football players; there were so many people. It was like the whole city of Albany was here,” said Mosely.
While neither Ashe nor Mosely reported any haunting tales of rattling chains or eerie experiences in the cemetery, they are happy to report that vandalism has been nearly nonexistent during their tenures. The cemetery, surrounded by chain link fencing, is locked from sunset to sunrise, and security measures throughout the acreage offer additional reassurance that no shenanigans take place.
“We’ve been blessed in that area,” said Mosely.
Ashe oversees a crew of five who are tasked with keeping the cemeteries in top condition. Their No. 1 challenge? Leaves, leaves and more leaves. While the stately old trees here lend a natural beauty, they also create a lot of work for staff members, added Ashe.
“Sometimes a widow will come out and say, ‘I buried my husband out here by an oak tree,’ and they can’t remember where. But we have dozens of oak trees,” said Ashe, regarding the challenges they help visitors face on occasion.
In addition, the crew is responsible for weed eating, mowing, pruning and policing the area for litter. The crew is especially careful when using the backhoe and other equipment in the cemetery, as headstones and monuments can be extremely fragile.
“If it chips a piece or cracks a piece, that’s a cost,” said Ashe. “And monument stone can run into the thousands.”
“And families will let you know,” added Mosely.
Both Ashe and Mosely take great pride in the work they do. In fact, they’re so interested in cemeteries that they both admit to visiting cemeteries in other cities when they travel, just to see what they can discover.
The busiest times for visitors are Easter, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, said Ashe, who makes a concerted effort to have things looking especially nice for visitors on those occasions.
Whatever their tasks are, however, everything comes to a halt when a service is scheduled. “All work stops then because our burials are No. 1 and take top priority over everything else,” said Mosely.
Cost for burial in the city cemetery is $1,125, which includes one grave space, and opening and closing fees for a weekday service. Weekend services run $1,170. Obviously, burying 120-160 people each year will eventually result in full capacity, said Ashe. With that in mind, the city in 2000 looked at expansion possibilities for the future, and decided there was additional acreage near the Riverside section they could eventually incorporate, he said.
Until then, his staff will continue to ensure families and loved ones that their dearly departed are in a pristine, well cared for cemetery, receiving the respect and dignity that they deserve in their final resting place.
K.K. Snyder is a freelance writer who resides in metro Albany.