Lakewood Memorial Park

Lakewood Memorial Park. . Following the creation of Rusk County and the establishment of Henderson as county seat in 1843, Old City Cemetery and the Graham-Hall or "New" City Cemetery served families as the primary public graveyards for nearly a century. With the death of Ella (Overton) Alford in 1932, a new public cemetery was established and developed for the community., The Henderson Daily News of January 13, 1932, recorded Ella Alford's obituary and mentioned that she was "Laid to rest on the crest of a hill, one mile out on the Henderson and Kilgore Highway, which marks the beginning of a new cemetery and is to be landscaped and made a beautiful memorial cemetery." In August 1933, the Alford family donated forty acres to the city of Henderson as Lakewood Memorial Park as a memorial to their parents, Ella (1863-1932) and Egbert (1858-1933) Alford, the first burials here. The family also donated land for a public park, Henderson High School and other philanthropic endeavors., The original cemetery design was created by noted Dallas landscaper Wynne B. Woodruff (1899-1979) and drafted by engineers Myers, Noyes and Forrest of Dallas, recorded in Rusk County records in 1937. The initial expense of landscaping the cemetery grounds was funded by the Alford estate. Curving roads and sidewalks and mostly flat gravestones highlight the design, although a limited number of upright markers and mausoleums have been placed over the years. The thousands of burials here chronicle generations of area residents, including twenty students from the 1937 New London School explosion, reinterments from Jenkins family cemetery, and Jamie Lynn Hand (1980-1999), one of twelve victims of the 1999 Texas A&M bonfire disaster. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2016.