By Sherry Larson
People’s Defender
In July, The People’s Defender published an article about the labor of love that Patsy Roberts, her family, and other volunteers had put into the restoration of the Winchester Cemetery.
The restoration process began during the Winchester Bicentennial in 2015. At the time, the graveyard was in dire need of care, and the last eight years have proven a slow and steady repair progression.
Although vandalism was always a fear of Roberts, she hoped her fears would never be realized. So, when she and her sister Joyce Porter were walking the cemetery the Monday following the Winchester Homecoming Festival’s Ghost Ride, she wasn’t surprised to see the damages, but she was heartbroken. “I can’t understand why,” she said. The display of disregard and disrespect for the dead moved her to tears. “We need to honor these forgotten people,” Roberts said.
Roberts and her grandson had completed fixing all the gravestones the week before the festival. They worked in 90-degree temperatures to finish in time. She said, “I was just heartbroken.” Eight of the gravestones were broken.
A $500 reward is offered to anyone who comes forward with information on who carried out the destruction. Roberts explained that it took someone strong to push over the stones.
Roberts, who writes the “Winchester Happenings” column for The Defender, will spend the next several weeks paying tribute to the individuals whose stones were among the damaged.
Describing the damages as devastating, Roberts said they haven’t begun repairing the fragile stones. A cemetery fund is in place, and those donations will be used to rebuild. Still, Roberts is planning and hopes to get a drone shot of the cemetery once the repairs are complete. She said, “But we will go ahead and get it back up and hope this doesn’t happen again.”