Ritchie Cemetery Association

The company we employ for grass-cutting has had a death in the family. Please be patient about the w**ds.

When Hurricane Laura hit, quite a few trees fell from the Alamo Subdivision onto burial spots in Old Ritchie Cemetery on South Perkins Ferry Road. The Cemetery Board paid for the trees to be removed in a timely manner. Some monuments/headstones/vaults were chipped or displaced.

Two graves were completely uncovered. Since some graves have been in place since the late 1800s, we don’t always know who is buried in certain spots, because at that time, records for this graveyard were not maintained. And, for graves that old, and without proper records, we do not know who to contact (family members). Therefore, we had new vault covers placed over these two graves.

We had a second hurricane before we could figure out the proper location for headstones that had been disturbed/displaced.

Our Cemetery Board is an unpaid board, and we give of our time to tend to cemetery business.

When a plot is sold, the person buying said plot is responsible for that 4’ x 10’ or 5’ x 10’. If a monument/headstone/vault becomes damaged due to natural disasters, the plot owners (family) are responsible for repairing/replacing said headstone/vault. Usually, the business who made the headstone/vault will go out and help said family for a fee.

We are a perpetual care cemetery which means that long after present board members and future board members are gone, the cemetery must still provide grass cutting, w**d eating, and other things pertinent to that care but not maintenance of headstones. The perpetual care of the cemetery grounds is planned for well into the future.