Rest Lawn Cemetery

Rest Lawn Cemetery. . , Rest Lawn Cemetery is one of the oldest graveyards in the historically African-American community of Acre(s) Homes, located about twelve miles northwest of downtown Houston. The community was developed by businessman Alfred A. Wright, beginning in 1910. By the 1950s the area was considered the "largest unincorporated Negro community in the southern United States," before being annexed to Houston, 1967-1974., The cemetery was founded by Mrs. Robert E. Doty (1894-1974), who purchased 9.88 acres in the Phillip Thompson survey on February 26, 1932. On March 12, 1932, she dedicated Rest Lawn Cemetery as a two-acre subdivision of that parcel, the cemetery's northwest corner being at Wheatley Street and Ferguson Way. Seven family lots and four single spaces were sold over the next ten years, but it is uncertain whether there were any burials during this period., Elmer Hay and Luther M. Inkley purchased Rest Lawn together with the adjacent 7.88 acres on June 18, 1942. During the 1950s the land north and south of the cemetery was sold as residential lots. In 1970, Rest Lawn was sold to MJM Cemeteries, Inc., which later purchased several lots abutting the cemetery on Prairie View Street and converted them into burial plots, expanding the cemetery to nearly 3.2 acres., Rest Lawn's earliest known burial was in 1943. Notable burials include several veterans of World War I, World War II, and Korea, well as Austin County, Texas native Weldon Bonner (March 22, 1932 - June 29, 1978), aka "Juke Boy Bonner," an African-American blues singer and musician. Several volunteer groups have cleaned Rest Lawn for years. Nonprofits Second Chance Outreach, Inc. and Omega Psi Phi's Iota Iota Iota Chapter began maintaining the cemetery in 2012 and continue to preserve and commemorate the cultural heritage and history of the cemetery.