FAYETTE COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — There’s a historic Black cemetery just outside of La Grange in Fayette County that some feel has essentially been abandoned.
It’s where a Vietnam veteran Donnell Phillips was laid to rest alongside others. Phillips is from Smithville, according to records.
The Mt. Olive African Methodist-Episcopal cemetery is just off Highway 71 on a dead-end road.
It’s easy to miss, if not for a small sign and American flag.
Cathy Kubicek said she left the flag so she could remember where the cemetery is, and she’s now on a personal mission to improve its conditions.
“Is it just because it’s an old African American cemetery — does nobody care?” Phillips said. “It hurts my heart.”
Tombstones are chained behind a gate and barbed-wired fence, and the cemetery grounds are rugged and untrimmed.
Kubicek went looking for the cemetery after watching the movie “We Were Soldiers” and discovering Phillips is buried there.
“We drove through the cattle gate, went all the way back to the back, and it’s this rickety, rusted chain link fence, and just trees and brush everywhere,” Kubicek said.
According to its website, Mt. Olive has been around since the late 1800s. It houses other veterans from World War II as well as slaves.
Bill Wright and John Stephen with the Texas Cemetery and Crematories Association help people with issues like unkempt grounds. They looked through property records to find out who owns Mt. Olive.
“It is kind of a community cemetery,” Stephen said. “There is no one that’s really upkeeping it at the moment.”
According to Wright and Stephen, in Texas, there are three types of cemeteries: endowment, city/government and private.
Wright and Stephen told NewsNation affiliate KXAN cemeteries without associations designated to maintain them are usually abandoned.
“People in the community have to care about it,” Wright said.
Doing what she can, Kubicek plans to clean it up in the fall when it cools off, out of respect for Phillips.
“He would be 80 years old this year,” Kubicek said. “I just wonder what he would be doing now and where his family is.”
Some of the family members who have relatives buried at Mt. Olive might still live in the area. KXAN was able to track down one family. However, they are older, and it’s hard for them to get out to keep up the grounds.
Kubicek is open to any help to help maintain the grounds and asks for you to contact her through KXAN reporter Jala Washington or KXAN ReportIt.