Families Pay Respects At Fort Gibson National Cemetery

Families gathered at Fort Gibson National Cemetery for the first fully attended Memorial Day observance since 2019.

The past two years were restricted because of the pandemic.

On Monday, families walked through the rows of white marble headstones, finding graves they wanted to mark with flowers.

Each of the more than 27,000 graves were marked with a flag, and the road leading to the cemetery was lined with hundreds.

Naomi Robbins and her sister, Tetrazena Richardson, were at the cemetery to leave flowers and take pictures at the grave an uncle, and some family friends.

“I’m very grateful they put their lives on the line, so we could be here today” said Robbins.

Fort Gibson National Cemetery was founded in 1868, after many years of smaller cemeteries around the original fort.

Cemetery Director David VanMeter said the pace of burials had increased over the last two years, from 750 a year before the pandemic, to about 1,000 annually now, and that increased the need for an expansion which was added this year.

“That's going to give us an additional 3,000 gravesites, an additional 3,000 in ground cremation sites, and that will extend the life of the cemetery to approximately 2,040,” he said.

Melodie Freeman has several relatives buried at Fort Gibson and was struck by how large the cemetery has become.

“What strikes me is just how many, how many men and women volunteered to serve, and it makes me really proud," said Freeman.