Fairlawn-New Zion Cemetery

10/15/2023

I received a call yesterday for one of our crew. Someone did a very heinous act. I’ll post these pictures but it’s disturbing at a minimum. I just can’t understand why someone would do something like this?

10/03/2023

I have a short update & a few pictures to share.

Before I start the update I’d like to ask for your ideas, thoughts, references, etc., on trying to gauge the interest level or appeal of working toward establishing a Crematorium plan for the Cemetery. I’m concerned about the ever increasing cost that families face when a loved one passes on. If it was within my power I’d do the burials for free. Sadly it’s not something I can do. We walk a fine line between trying to minimize costs & having enough funding to try to keep things looking nice as they should be.

We have had struggles this year as many of you know. We’ve had equipment stolen & not being able to work without tools. Periods of rain every day then terrible heat & humidity and last but not least having enough workers to do what is necessary.

I will be sending out our Fall & Winter Newsletter soon but want to show you a few recent pictures.

This is the Hwy expansion we have spoken about before. Please note how closely this work comes to our cemetery. The hedge we removed last year would have been lost. We still have plans to erect a steel pipe fence between the Hwy & the cemetery grounds. We have the donated pipe but not the funds to hire it done. So we’ll do this as we have time & money.

Much has been said this year about the New Zion part of the cemetery and its condition. It looked awful many times. Part of this was weather beyond our control & the rest of the it was on us for not having enough help to keep it as it should be. Here are a few pictures taken about a week or so ago.

As always, please let me know when you see something that needs attention & we will do our best to make it right.

Gary Fuqua

07/29/2023

Short update on Fairlawn - New Zion Cemetery.

Again, special THANK YOU for all the recent help & kind words of support. You are now officially “Friends of Fairlawn!”

We are within 1/2 of 1 section of having the entire 35 acres, mowed, trimmed & blown. That will be completed tomorrow and on Monday we will go back to doing a complete section before moving to another section.

This couldn’t have happened without the kind help from the community & a very hardworking grounds crew!

The past 2 months have been difficult with a stretch of rain every night, the hot sauna weather & the theft of many pieces of essential equipment.

Thanks to everyone again!
Gary

07/04/2023

I must share some sad news tonight too. Someone or more than one broke into the Cushing Fairlawn - New Zion Cemetery shop building & stole many of our tools (W**d eaters, blowers, batteries, UTV, etc.). I reported the break-in to the Payne County Sheriff’s Department & they sent an officer right away to investigate the break-in. Pretty obvious how the gained access. They tore off wood on the West side up above the concrete block walls. They also destroyed the chain lock on the metal door so they could load up. While we have insurance it’s still heartbreaking to have someone(s) violate the sanctity of where our friends & family rest.

The other impact of this despicable action is we can’t work to maintain the grounds without the tools needed to accomplish what has to be done!

One last request. We (Our 2 full time employees, 1 part time employee, Karla & I) are doing the best we can to keep the grounds respectfully in good order. We know there are places that don’t look good. Grass is high & growing as usual. We don’t like this anymore than the relatives & friends that come to visit. We are not blind & the unpleasant phone calls, e-mails & texts don’t help. So PLEASE be patient with us. We are doing all that can be done given our small workforce & the sheer size of the property. With donations down we just don’t have the funds to hire more help. It’s hard to find workers who are willing to work in the heat & humidity for substantially less than they can earn working at a fast food business. The help wanted signs are in their windows too.

Some may find this post objectionable or think that I’m just using excuses. I assure you I’m not making excuses. These are facts, pure & simple.

One closing example. My phone rings and I answer to be jumped on about the disgraceful condition the cemetery is in along with a handful of other less than kind remarks. In closing they tell me they don’t even have family or friends resting there but felt justified in complaining, etc.

We don’t need or frankly deserve things like that.

I have taught my children, when they were still home, that they should always do their very best, even if that isn’t good enough, because even God does not expect more than our best!

I will be working to set up a date & time for interested & willing helpers to meet at the cemetery for a community help day. In the mean time try a little kindness. It goes much further than getting chewed out or cussed at.

Thank you,

Gary Fuqua,
Volunteer

10/27/2022

Fall/Winter 2022/2023 Newsletter & Update

Hello! We hope things are well with each of you & your families. 2022 has proven to be a year of changes- not all of which has been good. I’m referring to the inflation that now is impacting all of us. Before getting into the accomplishments & plans we wish to thank each and every one of you for your continued support financially and your ideas, suggestions, & yes, even complaints. These help us identify what you feel is really important.

We will be sending donation receipts to everyone that helped us be able to maintain & improve the cemetery. Without that generous support the cemetery would likely fall back into that awful condition it was several years ago, something we are committed to prevent as long as we are able. If that last sentence gives pause it’s important to know & realize that due to past factors, mistakes & theft the Cushing Fairlawn – New Zion Cemetery is likely to never be self-sustaining. Many of those issues happened almost 20 years ago but their effect has been seen & felt every year since. This is upsetting, of course, to all of us that have loved one resting there & to those of us who will one day be resting there.

I bring this up because of my concern regarding our continued need for generous donations. As mentioned all of us are facing inflation that we haven’t seen since the 1980’s. Home loans at that time ranged from 16 to 18%. The nature of inflation is to force individuals and families to adjust how they spend their income. History shows that charitable contributions are usually among the most impacted. Our donations, which is our life blood, are down 25+% and falling. We can certainly understand why. The reality is if that trend continues or gets worse, we are not going to be financially able to make improvements and the mowing, trimming & blowing will not be done as often. We simply won’t have the money. I have checked with lawn care companies & their bids always come back much higher than we spend now.
With your help we were able to install a security system that works day & night. We receive immediate notice of any activity, complete with video & audio. We can even speak through the system to whoever is there. We have been able to maintain & improve the equipment of the cemetery. The 4 drain boxes and their french drains worked pretty well this year. If funds allow, we hope to install more of them. The roads are doing well with only occasional touch ups. We hope to work on the pipe fence I mentioned in the Spring newsletter as the pipe is on site now. It will be cut into post lengths and rails & then be installed, welded & painted. We have lost 5 trees this year and they pose a safety risk for visitors and any monuments that are around them. We will be removing these over the Winter.
In closing let me mention, as I have before, the cemetery is 35 acres with over 8,800 guests and we maintain it with a crew of 2 & myself when possible. It is not a golf course & we can’t maintain it to those standards with the cost it would require. We work on a section at a time. There are 14 sections plus New Zion. Please be patient with us. Every section will receive full attention in the rotation. So, if your section isn’t perfect, it’s simply because it is in the queue waiting it’s turn. One last thing, please be courteous to our 2 workers. They put in long hours working in the heat, humidity, rain & cold. Complements are always appreciated! If, there are concerns, complaints, or suggestions please send them to me. I will always respond.

Please be as generous as possible with your donations. Remember they are tax deductible.

Thank you again!

Gary Fuqua
President and Treasurer​​​​
Cushing Fairlawn – New Zion Cemetery Association
P.O. Box 1501​​​​​
Cushing, OK 74023​​​​ 
[email protected] fairlawn-newzion.org (Facebook & Website)
417-230-9162​​​​​
[email protected] (PayPal)

The Cushing Fairlawn-New Zion Cemetery Association was formed in 2005 as a not for profit corporation under Section 501C(13) of the Internal Revenue Code. All families who own burial plots or have loved ones interred in the cemetery are members of the Association. A Board of Directors has been appoi...

09/19/2022

I’m posting this to share a discussion going on in Facebook Messenger. I hope this will help with understanding on the Cushing Fairlawn - New Zion Cemetery Association.

Please know this is posted with love.

To all those who have posted or read this thread I will do my best to address your questions and any others that may come up. I will list my contact information at the end of this post.

To start with there are 35 acres of land & over 8,800 guests as I refer to them. To me this is indeed “Holy Ground.” There are 15 different sections in the cemetery. Our approach to up keep is simple. The efforts of out 2 full time employees (All we can afford!) take 1 section at a time and we complete all the mowing, trimming & blowing of grass clippings in that section before moving to the next section. The sections are not all the same in size so some times we’re able to do more than 1 section in a day. This is why you see some areas that look like the pictures where the grass is high and other areas where they look very nice. There is no pick a choose, which is to say, there is no favoritism. Each section gets it’s turn. With the 15 sections and in some cases, as I mentioned, we can do 2 smaller sections, it still takes 10 to 12 days to get from one end to the other. The mowing trimming & blowing has to slow down because there may be a new funeral & we have to have everyone getting ready for that. Opening the grave, setting up a tent, bringing chairs, etc. once the service is over then we go back through that same process but in reverse order. Then we go back to the general up keep. There is also coordination with the funeral homes & the families. Karla does most all of that. I help with upkeep on larger projects, such as the roads, the equipment, installing French drains to help keep water from completely covering graves. The land is not level & it has a high concentration of clay. The clay keeps the water from being absorbed as quickly as our yard do. Rain is another uncontrollable fact which hampers mowing, trimming, etc. You can drive by an area and think there’s no water but there is and it’s just below the surface of the grass. If you were to stop & try to walk out through it at a minimum you would have water over the top of your shoes.

The cemetery is a 501 (C) 3 not-for-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible & receipts from all donors are sent out usually just after the first of the year. If you’ve donated but didn’t receive a receipt please contact Karla or myself and we’ll get it mailed to you.

Financially speaking we are supported almost totally from donations. We receive no help from the City, County, State or Federal funds. There is a small Perpetual Care Trust that has less than $100k in it. However the cemetery only receives the interest that is annually accrued. We can not touch the principal amount. With interest rates so low over the past years the income has been very little. It was larger but as Richard mentioned the cemetery was bought by a supposedly reputable company & they took everything they could, which some how, included most of the Perpetual Care Trust.

That was a very sad thing to happen. The cemetery just sat for several years before a group of Cushing residents formed an association & the cemetery was given into that association. That was 2005. Those citizen did a good job for several years. Unfortunately, as eventually happens to us all, most have past on.

Lionel Harris was the most generous & we do still get, at least so far, a nice donation from their trust. Everything else comes from private donations. I’ve searched for many other ways to raise funds but there are no grants or other funding that I have been able to find. Now with inflation, rising interest rates & other economic impacts hitting most all of us our donations are down 60% from a year ago at this same time.

In closing I offer this. All of my time & the vast majority of Karla’s time is all donated. The 2 full time people who work 5 & sometimes 6 days a week, work in the heat & humidity along with cold & rain could make a lot more money working at McDonalds & not have to deal with the elements.

Karla & I took this management over knowing full well that it was a big job with no pay & that there would be criticism along the way. We both have a lot of family there as well as many friends & I felt something had to be done. I’ve ask for help in the past, more than once, and have received little to no response. If there is someone else who would like to take our places they are most welcome to. I worry about what will happen should one or both of us are no longer able to do what we do. That day will come but I hope it’s not soon.

Here is a short list of what has been done. 617 tons of rock & gravel brought in to repair the over 1 mile of roads inside the grounds. To date 4 French drains with more needed. The office building has been helped a great deal as it was almost to the point of not being fixable. The equipment has seen regular maintenance & service, addition equipment purchased & we are working on the removal of 5 or 6 trees that have died an now present a danger. The equipment storage building has received a new roof which now doesn’t leak & make it unsuitable for use.

We are looking at ways we can save families some of the cost of funerals. Particularly through cremation.

I welcome all thoughts, suggestions, etc.

Thank you all for your support & help.

Gary Fuqua
[email protected]

Cushing Fairlawn - New Zion Cemetery Association
P.O. Box 1501
Cushing, OK 74023

Kind regards to all!

Ps…We do send a Spring & Fall Newsletter to all we have addresses for.

PPs…I’ve received quotes from lawn care companies & we can not afford their costs.

05/06/2022

I wish to let all the Friends of Cushing Fairlawn - New Zion Cemetery know that our Spring Newsletter & Update will be arriving soon!

I have a couple of pictures & a few comments to post now.

The first is a picture taken Monday late afternoon for a good friends back porch looking straight West. They live on South Kings Hwy.

This big boy went back up into the clouds, passed over our house on North Kings Hwy & over the Cemetery. We did have some minor damage to one building roof but feel very lucky overall.

Recently there were some pictures of headstones & markers that were posted. I’d like to address those & share a few other pictures with you. The posts insinuated that our grounds keepers were knocking over monuments & in general doing a shabby job. Neither of which are correct. There have been a few occasions when headstones or markers get moved, usually trying to get into a very tight place to open & close a new guest. This is something that we avoid if there is any other way.

After seeing the posts & pictures I went to the cemetery myself & looked things over. There was also a picture of the American flag we keep posted. It had split in two pieces because of the 55 with gusts to 70 mph wind that came through the night before. That flag was up 2 days before it split & it was replaced with the kind help of the American Legion & VFW the very next day. We take our responsibilities VERY seriously to all who rest at Fairlawn - New Zion but particularly our Veterans! To imply anything less is simple not so. I counted around 20 give or take that were toppled over or not correct with how they looked. That 20 give or take was out of 8,800+ guests at rest. The urge was made for everyone to come to the cemetery & check on their families. Further implying this was a wide spread problem. Some did, which was great & I took pictures for anyone who contacted me worried about their loved ones.

I spoke with the monument company about how this was possible. Their answer was pretty much what I expected. Over the years & with the earthquakes we’ve had the seal that holds the headstone on the base can become brittle & crack. Once that happens over time the water gets inside & when it freezes it expands further weakening the seal until it’s mostly all cracked. At that point it is possible that very high winds along with the fact that many of the bases have settled at, in some cases, a pretty severe angle making it even easier for the headstone to fall.

According to the By-Laws that govern the cemetery the monuments, headstones & other markers are strictly between the family & the monument company that installs them. The cemetery & grounds keepers are not responsible for them. Even with that we will help where we can.

So here are a few pictures.

As always, I’ll try to answer any questions & help where I can.

Gary Fuqua
[email protected]

06/30/2021

We thought we were making progress in catching up from the May rains and then along comes June!!

My house is about a mile or less as the crow flies from the Cemetery and in the last 4 days & nights we've had almost 12" of rain!! It's definitely going to take awhile to recover from this mess!!

Good Grief!!!!!!!!!!!!!

06/19/2021

Cemetery Update

We are making progress toward catching up from the weeks of rain. Part of the problems caused by having as much rain as we’ve received is the ground has a high Clay content which doesn’t let the water readily get absorbed in the ground. The other problem is that there is very little slope in most of the cemetery. So the rain water just sets until it evaporates or slowly gets absorbed. To deal with this with we’ve added another temporary helper & are following our schedule as established last year. We do everything (Mowing, trimming & blowing) before moving to the next section. Things won’t be as noticeable once we’ve had a run through all the sections. At present some of the sections we haven’t been through yet have high grass. Those sections will get taken care of & be back to the look we all expect.

One of the projects we are working on right now is to dig & place blocks where the rain water will drain into & the boxes will have “French” drainpipes to carry the water out & away from the graves. Unfortunately, this approach is not feasible everywhere in the 35 acres of the Cemetery. We have identified 4 areas where we think the box & drain can work. We’re also studying the costs. In some cases, the gravel added to the roads have built up mini-dams. Our approach for those will be to install a drainpipe that goes under the road. Sadly there are only a few places where this will Work. There are also a few places on the roads that need more gravel which we’ll get fixed.

We are slowly making progress on the office building. We have 1 more exterior panel & the trim around the door & windows to do. When that is complete it will be painted white. We are also creating a drive/parking area alongside the garage & down to the front of the office. This is so people won’t have to drive & walk-through mud to meet in the office. This is accessed from entrance # 3.

We haven’t purchased any additional equipment, but we anticipate doing so in the not too distant future. A breakdown of costs will be posted
On the financial front payments from the sale of plots are now being paid into the Perpetual Care Trust Fund as should have always been done. The fund is growing but will probably never generate enough income to cover the operating expense of the Cemetery. The Trust Fund is overseen & regulated by a department in the State of Oklahoma government.

We are happy to answer any questions that anyone may have about the finances of the Cemetery.

On behalf of The Fairlawn - New Zion Cemetery Association we thank you for your continued support & trust.

05/29/2021

The Cushing Chapter of the American Legion will conduct their annual presentation of Colors on Monday at 10:00 AM. Guests are invited to attend if they wish. Thank You! 🇺🇸

02/01/2021

Karla & I want to thank everyone for your generosity, suggestions & comments. Here we are, in the middle of winter, planning more improvements!

Our plan is to get more rock on the roads before we hit April Showers. We are looking at 200 tons. We think that will cover the North end of Fairlawn & New Zion. We should have enough to do some patching of a few low spots in the rest of the roads.

Additionally we are calling for pricing on a newer, slightly larger tent, new carpet mats & an upgraded lowering Device. We will also finish up on the office project started this past fall.

Lastly we may have to replace the tractor. This is a huge expense & won’t be undertaken without consulting with all of you friends!

We are grateful for your help & trust! We want 2021 to be another stride forward toward making Cushing Fairlawn - New Zion Cemetery one we can all be proud of.

Look for our spring newsletter in April & remember to check back for updates.

Thank You again, Gary, Karla & staff.

Please send donations to our paypal account: [email protected] or via US Mail:

Cushing Fairlawn - New Zion Cemetery
P.O. Box 1501
Cushing, OK 74023