Southlawn Memory Gardens

10/04/2022

Is there anyone who owns burial plots at Southlawn Memory Gardens that would like to sell their plots?

05/30/2018

We wanted to take a moment and thank all of the volunteers that make Southlawn Memory Gardens beautiful, including the man in charge of lawn maintenance.

A special thank you to the person who placed the Southlawn wreath at the entrance on memorial. It was a beautiful touch and our family as long as many others appreciate it.

05/17/2017

Work done at Southlawn in the past two weeks. New solar lights put in and new edging.

If anyone has anything they would like to do at Southlawn please contact Patty Hogue so she can let the city of Atlantic know. Otherwise, you can contact the city yourself to let them know.

05/15/2017

I would like to give everyone a brief history of Southlawn Memory Gardens.

Many years ago, Southlawn was a privately owned cemetery. Due to circumstances, the owners let it fall into disrepair and essentially abandoned Southlawn. Iowa state law took over at that point. While nobody technically owns Southlawn now, there is a conservatorship for it. The conservatorship is held by Cass County, Iowa and the city of Atlantic. Because of the situation surrounding Southlawn, it is very difficult to get any maintenance or funding for it. The only thing the county/city provides for is that they contract out the mowing and do the road maintenance. Everything else is provided by us or by donations.

That brings us to our part of it. Southlawn had apparently been a forgotten cemetery. To be honest, we didn't even know Southlawn existed until we lost a member of our family. He was buried there and our family knew right away we had to do something about the way Southlawn was maintained. Many volunteer hours by us and dozens of people and funds from our pockets and gracious donors have been spent to get Southlawn to what it is today.

The person responsible for most of this is Patty Hogue. She has spent countless hours of her own time dealing with the city and the county to get any help she can from them for Southlawn. She dedicates so much time to maintaining it herself and spends quite a bit of her own money. You can usually catch her at Southlawn a few times a week if you would like to see what she does.

If anyone has any ideas for Southlawn they are encouraged to make them known. Southlawn is always in need for volunteers to maintain it and funds to help maintain it as well. If you feel you would like to donate time or funds please do not hesitate. Patty's contact information is included on this page. You are also more than welcome to purchase something for the cemetery or do work there yourself.

One final note, we run this page on a completely volunteer basis. What we do for Southlawn is volunteer only. If you have any complaints or concerns you need to contact the Cass County Board of Supervisors or the Atlantic Chamber of commerce. Please do not use this page for complaints since we do this out of the kindness of our hearts and for the love of our family.

Thank you everyone for your continued support.

05/15/2017

Just a little reminder to our followers. Everything we do to maintain Southlawn in completely volunteered by us. Our time and our money goes to maintaining Southlawn so it looks nice.

The only thing we do not manage is the mowing of the grounds; that is done by someone hired by the Cass County Board of Supervisors.

In the effort to keep it looking immaculate, anyone visiting Southlawn is more than welcome to volunteer their time to picking up trash, pulling weeds, etc. Thank you for you continued support of Southlawn Memory Gardens.

08/12/2012

05/26/2012

New entance sign :)

02/02/2012

01/13/2012

Today was very productive. Patty Hogue (Kevin's gram-gram) met with Supervisors McFadden and Schilling, Councilman Livengood and Mayor Jones. They started out at Southlawn and Patty pointed out all of the concerns about the cemetery. After touring Southlawn, they all went back to the courthouse and sat down and discussed things even further. They were all very helpful and receptive to our ideas. They have agreed to do everything we have requested. A few of those things are replacing the front entrance sign, removing dead trees and bushes, having the hay bale removed, better maintenance and many other things. They have agreed to get started on it right away, well removing the trees and bushes anyways. Have to wait for better weather to replace the entrance sign. We are ecstatic!!

12/22/2011

Went to the City Council meeting this evening. The mayor, Dave Jones, assured us that a committee is being put together with some members of the City Council, some members of the Board of Supervisors and will include some of Kevin's family. After the holidays the committee will meet to go over what things need to be done to make Southlawn as beautiful as it can be.