Letter to the editor: Reader shares information about Las Vegas cemeteries

In the early history of Las Vegas, the Stewart Ranch served as the final resting place of the deceased. A new cemetery was deemed necessary as the town grew. According to the Las Vegas Age, a newspaper that eventually became the Las Vegas Review-Journal, in 1914 the city of Las Vegas needed a permanent cemetery. Donated land was later renamed Woodlawn Cemetery. Some of the burials at the Stewart Ranch and the Las Vegas City Cemetery (aka Griffiths Cemetery) were reinterred to Woodlawn. In the 1970s, when Owens Avenue (bordering Woodlawn) was being widened, some bodies were found outside the cemetery fence. These bodies were reinterred in Woodlawn, Section O. There are are other documented reinternments, such as remains from the site behind the old Sunny Mortuary. Woodlawn Cemetery celebrates over 100 years of service to our community and is in the National Register of Historic Places. The Nevada African American Genealogy Society endeavors to raise funds for an appropriate Permanent Memorial Marker for all of the reinterred deceased at Woodlawn Cemetery. They deserve dignity in their final resting place. For further information, contact Darell White, president of NAAGS, at 702-596-2144.

— Darell White, North Las Vegas

Editor’s note: As part of a Memorial Day program, on May 30, the Nevada African Genealogy Society placed a memorial wreath to honor African Americans and all reinterred deceased, known and unknown, most in unmarked graves, at Woodlawn Cemetery, 1500 Las Vegas Blvd. North.