The owners of Roanoke's two historic cemeteries want to give them to the city, but the city won't give them up

Starting Myrtin Cronk Heslep's family business required her to work the graveyard shift - literally.

As a teenager, Heslep worked by hand cutting grass around headstones in Fair View Cemetery. Even at a low wage, Heslep made good money, considering that the cemetery, owned by her father, Russell Cronk, covered 57 acres and contained thousands of graves.

"I was making 25 cents a marker," Heslep recalls. "I had to get on my knees with hand scissors."

These plaques bear the names of some of Roanoke's founders - mayors, congressmen, and even Charles Thomas, whose midnight horseback ride in 1881, legend has it, played a huge role in the story of Roanoke's founding. Thomas rode toward Buchanan on a dirt highway as part of a relay to deliver a $10,000 guaranteed promissory note from local businessmen to railroad magnates gathered in Lexington, who convinced him to build the line on which boomtown Roanoke, the "Magic City," sprang up the following year. Fair View is not only where the dead are buried, but where history lives.

Heslep's brother, Dennis Cronk, was no stranger to digging graves with a backhoe, cutting grass, assisting at funerals and other jobs at Fair View, a 133-year-old cemetery in northwest Roanoke that the family had overseen since 1965. The Cronk family home on 31st Street was practically part of Fair View, surrounded by a stone wall echoing the cemetery's facade and with a backyard that included the entrance to the burial park.

"I practically grew up in a cemetery," says Dennis Cronk.

Sometimes, however, even a cemetery must transition, and that is the reality facing the Cronk and Heslep family. With no heirs interested in managing Fair View or Cedar Lawn Memorial Park, the family's other cemetery, and attempts to find other buyers unsuccessful, the board plans to dissolve the nonprofit foundation that has managed the cemeteries for nearly 40 years and transfer the property to the city of Roanoke, which the family hopes will take over later this year.

"We're not selling it," Cronk said. "We're giving it away. We tried to find another corporation to take it over, but we couldn't do it. We wanted to find someone who would be personally responsible for the cemetery continuing to exist. The best option is for the city to take on that responsibility."

The problem is that so far the city is not interested in accepting the donation of the two cemeteries.

The decision to accept or reject a proposal to manage the cemeteries, one of which dates back to Roanoke's first decade of existence, may ultimately fall to the City Council. Last week, however, Roanoke's mayor and city attorney said the city's preference is for the cemeteries to be managed by a private owner rather than the city government.

"I can't speak for everybody, but I think the city council is unanimous that this is not something the city should be doing," Mayor Sherman Lea said.

City Attorney Tim Spencer said Roanoke officials have been working with the cemetery board for more than a year to find private owners to take over. He, like Lea, believes the city should not take ownership of Fair View and Cedar Lawn.

Spencer said that while the council makes the decision, in his opinion, "the city is not in the business of cemeteries."

Mount Reed rises in the background, and Fair View Cemetery has served as a burial ground for Roanoke families since 1890. Photo by Ralph Berrier, Jr.

The final resting place of tycoons and paupers, veterans and infants

To say that the view at the cemetery is quite beautiful is an understatement.

Fair View is located atop a hill that rises between Melrose Avenue to the north and Salem Turnpike to the south. The hilltop near the main office offers panoramic views of nearly every major mountain peak surrounding the Roanoke Valley, from Tinker, Reed and Fort Lewis to Bent Mountain and Pur Mountain. Mill Mountain and the Roanoke Star, which glowed fluorescent only after the cemetery turned nearly 60 years old, are also visible from Fair View. Other nearby landmarks have since been given the same name, including Fairview United Methodist Church and Fairview Elementary School.

This location, now home to convenience stores, Burger King, warehouse buildings, a Virginia ABC store and other city businesses, would have been considered remote from civilization when it was founded in 1890, just eight years after Roanoke began running on the steam engine.

Before the Shenandoah Valley and Norfolk & Western railroads turned Roanoke into a boomtown crossroads, the former hamlet of Big Lick had its own cemetery - a small plot now called the City Cemetery, located next to the Roanoke Rescue Mission near downtown. (The city still owns this cemetery.) With population growth in the 1880s - Roanoke grew from less than 1,000 to more than 16,000 people in eight years, a 2,000 percent increase that gave rise to the name "Magic City" - city officials realized that the city cemetery was not a sufficient burial ground.

According to the Fair View story on the company's website, in the winter of 1890, several Roanoke families pooled money to purchase a plot west of town. Some bodies were moved from the city cemetery to the new plot, which was a quiet resting place 4 miles west of the cacophony and noise of railroad shops, railroad yards and the noisy, dirty and smelly downtown.

A beautiful bell tower graces the burial site of former Roanoke Congressman Clifton Woodrum and his wife Martha. Photo by Ralph Berrier, Jr.

Henry Trout, one of Roanoke's founders and early mayors, is buried in Fair View. Congressman Clifton Woodrum, a prominent politician whose name graced Woodrum Field Airport and who rode in an open limousine with President Franklin Roosevelt to the opening of the Veterans Hospital in 1934, lies here next to his wife Martha under an impressive 6-foot-tall white bell tower.

Ten Roanoke mayors and two Big Lick mayors are buried here, including Roy Webber, the florist turned Roanoke mayor for whom the Roy Webber Expressway was named after after his death from a heart attack in 1975. Buried among the 26,000 graves are veterans of nearly every war since the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 (these bodies were reburied from other cemeteries; the cemetery also has a plaza dedicated to military veterans and offers free burial space for veterans), state legislators and judges, as well as railroad workers who died on the job and dozens of infants who died during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

The headstone of James D. Jackson features a close-up bas-relief of a railroad locomotive beneath a worn inscription describing the man's death in a railroad accident. Photo by Ralph Berrier, Jr.

Some inscriptions contain gruesome details, such as a description of the death of James D. Jackson in 1893.

The weathered inscription is hard to make out, but basically states that Jackson was "killed on the SVRR", which stands for Shenandoah Valley Railroad. It goes on to say that Jackson "during the crash and fall ... remained steadfast and sacrificed his life to fulfill the assignment entrusted to him" or something to that effect.

A closer look at the Norfolk & Western steam locomotive and dragster reveals details of the sculpted granite composition created for Thomas and Laura Goodman. Photo by Ralph Berrier, Jr.

Thomas and Laura Goodman's headstone is notable for the elaborately carved granite Norfolk & Western steam locomotive and railroad car that stands atop the headstone. Flowers, lambs and other bas-relief images adorn the headstones.

A small, unmarked slab covers the grave of a child at Fair View Cemetery in Roanoke. The child likely died during the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. Photo by Ralph Berrier, Jr.

In the northwest section of the cemetery, rows of small graves are topped by flat tablets with no names or words, only numbers or dates, which attest to the tragic effects of the 1918-19 pandemic, especially on young people.

This section of the cemetery also contains names that appear to be Eastern European or Asian, including some with Asian characters, due to Roanoke's heritage as an immigrant town from the early days of the railroad. Jews and blacks are buried here, many from the era when Roanoke and the entire Jim Crow South were split by segregation.

Heslep, now chairman of the board of the nonprofit F.V. Cemetery Co. Inc. says her father often helped poor families bury their dead, sometimes for free.

"He provided burial space for some of the babies," she says. Russell Cronk tried to accommodate low-income people, especially if they already had relatives buried in Fair View.

For decades, Fair View operated under its original charter as a private cemetery under several presidents, including members of the Griggs family, whose ancestors were mayors of Big Lick and who, according to cemetery records, ran the company for nearly 50 years. In 1909, the cemetery became the first in Virginia to establish a perpetual care fund to cover future operating costs, which today exceeds $3 million.

Russell Cronk, a World War II veteran, went to work for the Griggs family after the war, became manager, and in 1965 became president of Fair View. That same year, Fair View Cemetery Company purchased Cedar Lawn, a private burial park located at the intersection of Peters Creek and Cove roads, which brought in additional revenue to sustain the company. In 1983, Fair View became a nonprofit and established the Fair View Foundation, which allowed the cemetery board to accept charitable donations and conduct fundraising campaigns.

Today, however, no family members or outsiders are interested in taking over the cemetery, said Dennis Cronk. That has prompted the council to explore options that include turning the cemeteries over to the city.

Heslep said the council wants to make sure the cemetery, which has about 200 burials a year, remains viable for future generations and that the nine full-time employees stay on the job. Cronk said the cemetery is financially sound and has room for burials for decades to come. About 14 acres in Fair View and five in Cedar Lawn are unused.

"This is one of the best cemeteries in the Roanoke Valley," Heslep said. "It is in very good condition, with competent staff members working here. All the computer systems and accounting are state-of-the-art. It has everything here for a successful transition."

The boards of directors of Fair View Cemetery (pictured) and Cedar Lawn Burial Park in Roanoke want to donate the two facilities to the city, but Roanoke leaders have not yet shown interest in accepting the gift and the responsibility of operating the cemeteries. Photo by Ralph Berrier, Jr.

The deadline expires and there's still no buyer.

Fair View leaders contacted Roanoke officials more than a year and a half ago to discuss the possibility of transferring the cemeteries to the city. On June 24, 2021, Cronk and others met with City Manager Bob Cowell and showed a slide presentation of their plan.

Bill Hopkins, the council's attorney, provided Roanoke officials with a list of 60 cemeteries in Virginia that are owned by municipalities, but the list, he said, is not complete. He also cited a Virginia law that allows land to be transferred to municipalities for use as cemeteries.

"We told them repeatedly that this was going to happen," Hopkins says of his communication with Roanoke management.

Cronk, who has been a developer for more than 40 years and is chairman and CEO of Roanoke-based Poe & Cronk Real Estate Group, said he has tried to find private buyers for cemeteries and even enlisted the help of a broker who specializes in cemetery real estate.

"I spent 15 years trying to find someone to buy cemeteries," Cronk says. "I hired a cemetery broker from Las Vegas, talked to corporations. I had no luck."

Cronk said he understands that some people don't see cemetery management as a core public service that city leaders should be doing. But he said Fair View's history and the fact that the council will donate about $3 million to the city for a perpetual care fund should make the transition more acceptable to city leaders.

"We don't believe it will take resources away from the city," Cronk said.

However, the proposal can't be said to have convinced the city. Cowell was out of town last week and unavailable for comment on Fair View and Cedar Lawn. Earlier this month, Hopkins sent a letter to Lea and other city council members urging the council to schedule a public hearing on the possible transfer of the cemeteries. To date, no hearing has been scheduled.

The agenda for Tuesday's City Council meeting includes a request for a closed session to discuss "a possible acquisition of property in the northern area of the City of Roanoke, the discussion of which in open session could adversely affect the public body's negotiating position or strategy," possibly referring to the Fair View and Cedar Lawn proposals.

Lea said the proposal could be discussed at a future council meeting, but noted that "the permanent majority [of council members] are against getting involved."

Spencer said no one in town government has shown "any intention of taking ownership" of the cemeteries. He compared the situation to a private company going out of business.

"A lot of businesses are falling apart," he said. "And the city is not taking them over."

Spencer said he was surprised that the Fair View council hired a public relations firm to send out press releases announcing the intention to give the cemeteries to the city. He called the move a "head-scratcher" that seemed designed to build public support for the group's proposal to give the cemeteries to the city.

"They hired a PR firm to put pressure on the city," Spencer said. "It was a little unsettling. But I think we can still work together and find someone in the private sector."

Spencer said he has been in contact with three potential cemetery operators.

Jennifer Eddy, president of the Roanoke-based Eddy Alexander Agency, which handled the council's public strategy, said her firm was hired not to pressure the city but to help communicate Fair View's plans to families whose loved ones are buried in the cemeteries and to the general public.

"We needed to let the family and staff know what was going on," says Eddie. "We sent out letters to families and postcards to neighbors. We wanted to tell community leaders that we were running out of succession opportunities."

The nonprofit foundation that manages the cemeteries will be dissolved on June 30. If no successor is found, whether by the city or a private entity, a receiver may be appointed to take control of the cemeteries and search for a buyer.

"We don't think it will be successful," Hopkins said.

Board member Charles Hunter, who has four generations of relatives buried in Fair View, said Cronk and Heslep have worked hard to find a suitable successor to lead their family.

"They are passionate about cemeteries," Hunter says. "They haven't done anything for themselves, but they've done everything they can to make sure these cemeteries will continue to exist in the future."

Regardless of who becomes the next owner of the cemeteries, Cronk said decisions need to be made soon.

"We need time to get people up to speed to make this transition successful," Cronk said. "Our job is to secure the future. The best option is to take over."