In the center of historic Oak Grove Cemetery in Conway, near the American flag and a gazebo, a granite columbarium is finally complete.
It will be dedicated at 3 p.m. Oct. 21, said Carol Powers, who has spearheaded the project for years. The brief ceremony will be followed by a free historical re-enactment, Gone, But Not Forgotten, by Conway High School drama students.
It has taken about five years to complete the columbarium, which will have 200 spaces available now with markers to be engraved, with the potential of 400 spaces available for cremains.
“It was created to provide a place of dignity and respect for the interment of cremains,” she said. “When we started, people were totally unaware of what that was for,” she said of the columbarium. “The word is from the Latin, columba , a symbol of spiritual peace and originally referred to a compartmentalization for doves.”
The cost is $500 per space. “We have some pretty defined guidelines,” she said, including a limited number of fonts. Powers said the goal is to give the columbarium a “simple, classic appearance.” She praised Patrick Moix of Conway, a contractor, for his work on the project.
The project started, Powers said, when seven members of the cemetery board decided to make building a columbarium a priority as part of the board’s long-range planning, Powers said. She had been president of the board for a couple of years and found she had a personal connection to the cemetery through her husband, Charles Powers, who died in August 2017.
His great-grandfather was James H. Harkrider, for whom Harkrider Street is named, and the Harkrider family helped establish the Oak Grove Cemetery in 1880 at the eastern end of Bruce Street. A 10-acre section of the 24-acre cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Maudie E. Ingram, the 8-year-old daughter of William and Agnes Ingram, was the first person buried there. She died July 11, 1881. Her headstone has the quote “Gone, But Not Forgotten” engraved on it.
Carol and Charles Powers donated the obelisk in the middle of the columbarium, and engraved on one of the four sides of the monument is “Donated by the Charles L. Powers Family.” The other sides are engraved in memory of her husband’s parents, Charles N. and Esther Powers; his grandparents, Thomas F. and Sarah Harkrider Powers; and his great-grandparents, James H. and Marcy “Mollie” Harkrider.
“This has been a team effort,” Carol Powers said.
Other board presidents included Chris Spatz, Patricia Thessing, Linda Rogers, Betty Cohen and current president Ellen Gordy. Chris Odom, who was integral in the property being accepted to the National Register of Historic Places, served several terms as treasurer, Powers said.
Gone, But Not Forgotten highlights notable people buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery, which is on the east end of Bruce Street. A board member will serve as the tour guide.
Nine Conway High School students will portray the individuals in the tour, drama teacher A.J. Spiridigliozzi said.
“When I first started teaching, they reached out to me to do this, the folks at the Oak Grove Cemetery did, and we did it maybe three years,” he said.
Then board members changed, and the production fell by the wayside.
“We stopped for a while, then last year, I approached the cemetery board and asked if we could start it up again,” Spiridigliozzi said.
The students and the people they will portray are as follows:
• Lawson Townsend and Hannah Moyster will appear as Guy H. “Mutt” Jones Sr. and his wife, Elizabeth Relyea Jones.
Townsend, 16, is a junior at Conway High School. The student said he hadn’t heard of Gone, But Not Forgotten until his teacher told the class about the project.
“I love making scripts and acting; it’s pretty fun,” he said. Townsend said he learned that Jones grew up in Conway and earned his law degree at Hendrix College and was drafted into the Army.
According to the University of Central Arkansas archives, Jones was discharged as a captain in May 1946. He served in World War II as a first lieutenant and executive officer of Company L, 5th Infantry Regiment, 71st Infantry Division.
He was also elected twice to the Arkansas Senate and was tried and convicted on income-tax evasion, which caused his removal from the Senate. Jones was suspended from practicing law for one year.
“I plan on going into the Navy after high school,” Townsend said, “and it’s cool to see how he was an executive officer and first lieutenant in the Army.”
• Sawyer Sammons will be Judge Russell C. “Jack” Roberts.
• Kyle Greene and Alia Windsor will perform as James Douglas “Justice Jim” Johnson and his wife, Virginia Lillian (Morris) Johnson.
Greene, an 18-year-old senior, said he hadn’t heard of the Gone, But Not Forgotten tour, either, but he’s enjoying learning the history of Johnson and his wife.
“I really didn’t know what the play was till we started out doing it, and once we got more of the background of all the characters, it was neat to see what they did and how they helped Conway and how they helped the community,” Greene said.
Johnson was an Arkansas state senator and an associate justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court in the 1950s and ’60s.
Greene said Johnson died in 2010 at age 85.
The student said the most important part of the re-enactment is to share Conway’s history.
Windsor, a 16-year-old junior, will speak as Virginia Johnson. The students write their own scripts, sometimes with a little help from Spiridigliozzi. Windsor and Greene are working together on theirs.
“We’re still working on [the script], but it’s coming along,” Windsor said.
“I’m really excited, and I think it’s really interesting that it gives everyone a chance to learn more about [Gone, But Not Forgotten].”
She said Virginia Johnson died in 2007 at age 79.
“She was a legal secretary in Arkansas, and she and [her husband] had three kids, Mark, John David and Joseph Daniel,” Windsor said. “Something I found kind of interesting was she started as a Democrat and turned Republican.”
Windsor said she will portray Johnson as she was in the 1950s and will wear a dress from that time period. “I love that style,” Windsor said.
• Leah Fimple will portray Ida Marie West; Sterling Scallion and Graycen Talley will be Benton Turner and his wife, Mary Phayer Turner.
The short vignettes work well for the students, Spiridigliozzi said.
“Being in a [full] show is very time-consuming,” Spiridigliozzi said. “This is great because they can work on their own. It’s all theirs. They own it, and also, what a strong connection to your community, talking about the history
of where you live right now.
“Last year, I had a script-reading and -writing class. This year, I don’t have that, but my kids have been good about getting started. It’s been a fun little collaborative project.”
The event has been well-attended in previous years, he said.
“People came out because they had a fondness for history, and people came out because they were related to someone in history,” Spiridigliozzi said.
“One man’s wife came [to the cemetery], … and she got to hear the student [portray her late husband], and they connected afterward. It was a pretty moving experience.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.