CLARKSVILLE, Mo. — Stories of the departed help emphasize why upkeep of Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville is so important to so many.

The volunteer board that oversees the city-owned graveyard will host a breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Clarksville American Legion along Highway 79. Tickets are $10 each and will be available at the door.

The menu features scrambled eggs, pancakes, grilled sausage, biscuits, gravy and homemade apple butter.

Proceeds will be used for maintenance of the 24-acre site, which opened in 1868 and has more than 3,500 graves.

“It takes a lot of money to keep up the mowing, removing dead trees, keeping the roads graveled and just general maintenance,” said volunteer Helaine Mackey. “People who have loved ones there expect it to look nice.”

Donations, bequests and city funding help with costs, but don’t pay all of the bills. Mackey said mowing alone costs more than $30,000 a year. Expensive marker repairs have been done, and 75 flat military gravestones that had sunk into the ground were restored a few years ago. Breakfast organizers appreciate the financial assistance.

“People have been good and have helped out the best they can,” said Martha Hipes, board president.

The reason volunteers are so dedicated to preservation is tied to tales left by those who have passed.

There’s Dr. Cary Randolph Bankhead, a direct descendant of President Thomas Jefferson. Henry Stark Carroll lost three toes on his left foot to an exploding shell during an 1864 Civil War battle in Arkansas.

Anna Cora Campbell was a dressmaker and department store sales clerk. Behind the counter of the Clarksville drug store she and her husband owned, Marilyn Crow made delightful cherry phosphates.

Dallas Singer impacted thousands of kids as an educational administrator in Pike County. Abraham Tinsley was Clarksville’s “colored” barber. John Wesley Wallace made buggies and wagons, and even carved his initials into a door at the blacksmith shop next to his Clarksville home.

Seven people with the first name “America” – including a three-year-old and an 80-year-old – are buried at Greenwood.

One new effort is construction of a memorial to more than 600 indigent people whose graves were part of what’s called the Public Burial Site. The two-acre plot was bulldozed in the 1960s and many remains were lost.

A trust organized by the former Clarksville Women’s Chamber of Commerce and other contributions will fund the project. Every person’s name will be placed on a brick around four seven-foot benches. A sign also will be erected.

The project is off to a good start. Volunteers have already restored gravestones of seven veterans who were buried in the Public Site. Work should be completed this fall or next spring.

CUTLINE FOR PHOTO: Greenwood Cemetery volunteers recently restored the gravestones of seven veterans and hope to continue raising funds for additional upkeep. (Photo by Helaine Mackey)