Locals Hope for New Chapter at Troubled Greenwood Cemetery

It’s easy to see why Greenwood Memorial Park has been deemed abandoned. Tall weeds rise up from open burial vaults, many filled with trash. Fallen tree limbs lie on and beside the rutted, puddle-filled dirt tracks that trace the cemetery. Orange cones mark holes in the soil, and the patchy grass appears in fits and starts among grime-covered headstones.

But look closely, past the stray shopping cart, the plywood-covered vaults, the flag tangled in its own line at the bottom of a rusty pole. Here and there, in dashes of color throughout the 10-acre site, you’ll see fresh flowers beside a grave. In spots, the jarring contrast of fresh green sod shows that Greenwood — if only in patches — is still cared for.

For the first time in a long while, those who are still invested in the cemetery have some hope that it will get more than haphazard care. 

“I am optimistic,” said Shelton resident James Dean, who has eight or nine family members buried at Greenwood.

Dean and others are cheered by the news that the Legislature has allocated $250,000 to put the cemetery in the hands of the city of Centralia, provided officials establish a cemetery district. City leaders are working to come up with a plan, which would require purchasing the property from owner John Baker. Baker is currently incarcerated pending trial on an assault charge, and his recurring legal issues and mismanagement of the property over the past decade have created a problem that defies easy solutions.

While no one is excited about giving Greenwood’s troubled owner up to a quarter-million dollars, it may be the only workable option. 

“I hate to see John benefit from all the wrongdoings he has done,” said Sultan resident Christina Sivewright. “But that may be the lesser of evils to resolve the situation.”

Sivewright was born at Greenwood, which was owned by her family before her parents sold it to Baker in the 1970s. She has six generations of family buried there, more than 50 people in all. Many of the people contacted for this story credited her twice-annual cleanup events with keeping the grounds from even further disrepair. Like many who still have ties to the cemetery, Sivewright has her share of horror stories.

“(Baker) literally ran a vehicle over my mother's grave and chucked her headstone,” Sivewright said. 

Among other indignities, she also had to go through a court battle to get her uncle buried, as Baker and then-caretaker Jennifer Duncan were embroiled in a dispute over the site. 

“No one from outside the cemetery wanted to take on the liability of going on private property and performing the burial,” she said.

Sivewright is far from the only person to be held in legal limbo over a loved one’s final resting place. When Carolyn Westley’s daughter-in-law passed away about a month ago, she offered to have her buried in one of the plots she and her husband had originally purchased for themselves. 

There was one problem. The paperwork listed Westley’s plot in section 13. Legally, according to the state and Lewis County, no section 13 has ever been registered. Westley says the section exists, physically, but without the matching registration, the family can’t proceed. They’re still waiting.

“It's just a matter of locating it, because I'd go out there and dig it myself,” she said. “I'm strong minded. You can't tell me I can't put my people here. I've got this paperwork. Come on; find the spot.”

Stories like that are why locals say it’s important to resolve the ownership situation promptly. They credited area legislators for recognizing the problem, and they want Centralia to apply the same sense of urgency.

“My wife and I are working on our wills,” said Glen Dickason. “We don't want to be buried there. And yet my whole family’s there.”

When Dickason’s mother died, he said, Baker sat on a tractor 50 yards away, waiting for the service to be over so he could fill the grave back in.

“It struck everyone as inappropriate that he could hardly wait for us to get out there,” he said.

Later, when his father passed, the family had to get a court order to get him buried. Dickason said putting the property in the city’s hands would go a long way not only toward improving conditions, but in giving families peace of mind that such scenarios won’t be repeated when they or their loved ones pass.

Both Sivewright and Westley said they still plan to be interred at Greenwood. Even with the uncertainty, it’s important to them to stay close to their families. But they’re hopeful that by the time their time comes, Greenwood will be a peaceful, drama-free place again.

“I appreciate that they're tackling it, and it's rising to the surface,” Sivewright said. “I have 100 percent faith that if they move in this direction, the people who this is important to and who are impacted will support and help them moving forward. … Having a cemetery district is a great step in the right direction. The way things have been set up hasn't really allowed the city to step in. I hope they do what they can to take advantage of this window of opportunity.”

Even if the city is able to acquire the property, it will have a huge task ahead in restoring and maintaining it. 

“I'm very glad that the money was allotted to the city,” Dean said. Still, he worried if there would be enough funding left for long-term maintenance. “You could easily keep someone busy five days a week out there.”