Overcast skies withheld their raindrops as families began arriving at Mt. Union Cemetery in Philomath on Saturday morning, their arms loaded with flowers and garden tools as they prepared to commemorate Memorial Day weekend by caring for family graves.

The cemetery was created in 1861, and contains many graves of Civil War veterans and other early settlers of the area. The Mt. Union Cemetery Board oversees the cemetery, and a team of volunteers, including leader Warren Evans and neighbor Laverne Sandrock, can often be found working to keep the cemetery neat and well cared-for. Evans has recently been spending a lot of time repairing fallen and broken stones, as well as keeping the grounds tidy.

“They’re cutting the grass all the time and trimming the hedges and the blackberry bushes,” said Sandrock, whose home faces the cemetery. “They’ve been doing an awful lot of work.”

There are more than 150 veterans of various wars buried in the cemetery, and Sandrock enjoys seeing the flags flying next to the stones during Memorial Day weekend. Alongside historic graves are more recent ones, and many relatives join in on keeping the cemetery looking attractive.

On his knees next to two grave stones that marked his brother, Rickey, and father Rex’s graves, Stan Quinton carefully pulled weeds away from the edges of the stones, lovingly tidying the graves as his wife, Lynne, and his sister, Shirley Wilkinson, and her husband, Bill, looked on. Each Memorial Day weekend, the family usually drives down from the Portland area to tend to the graves, picking up flowers from a nearby nursery on their way.

“I usually come at least once a year,” Stan said, moving his kneeling pad from place to place as he cleared away debris from his father’s headstone.

“This is my first trip down in quite a long time,” Shirley said. She and her husband only recently moved to Tualatin, so she was glad of the chance to join her brother on the trip.

Rex, who died in 1991, was a World War II veteran who, at the age of 12, hopped on a train in Missouri and made his way to California, where he struck out on his own.

“He was a unique individual,” Stan recalled. “He was from the old school. He was one of the old time people. He grew up in hard times and made his way in life.”

Once, Stan said, he thinks he might have felt his father’s strong presence even in the afterlife. It was on a particularly hot, still day at the cemetery, and he’d just placed a flag on his father’s grave. Then he went to sit down a little way off, and at that moment, his father’s flag unfurled and began to fly. Every other flag in the cemetery hung motionless.

“There was not a breath of air. It was eerie,” he said, adding that the hair on his arms stood up just talking about it. “I have (the flag) on camera. It was something else.”

Shirley and Bill don’t plan on leaving a grave behind to take care of. They are members of the Neptune Society, an organization that will provide cremation services no matter where you pass away, and will then get the ashes to family members.

“The kids can decide where we go,” Shirley said. “I’d kind of like them to plant a tree.”

After Stan dug out the border of each headstone, he brushed any remaining dirt off the stones, declaring that next year he’d come back with a can of Roundup to kill the weeds permanently. Then he and Shirley placed two bouquets of flowers, and a flag, next to the stones.

“It looks nice, guys,” Bill said.

Bill and Lynne left their spouses standing at the grave and gave them a little quiet time together. Brother and sister stood quietly for a few minutes, before clasping hands and walking away from the graves together.

Memorial Day ceremonies

The Corvallis Memorial Day ceremony celebrates its 60th anniversary today during a ceremony at Crystal Lake Cemetery in south Corvallis, on Crystal Lake Drive.

The event features key-note speaker Judy Juntunen, formerly of the Benton County Historical Museum, who will speak about several recently discovered and re-marked graves dating back to the Civil War.

Services begin at 10 a.m. at the base of the century-old Civil War Soldier state, and will be conducted by the American Legion Post No. 11 and VFW Post No. 640.

A Memorial Day event at the Benton County Veterans Memorial, which begins at 2 p.m. at 1100 N.W. Kings Blvd., includes pre-entertainment music by Master’s Men, and features keynote speaker Col. David Enyeart, Assistant Adjutant General, Oregon Army National Guard. Fallen soldier Corporal Graham McMahon’s parents, Bill and Karen McMahon, will lay a red wreath in front of the Wall of Honor for their son, and a new feature of the memorial, a Purple Heart Walkway of Honor, will be dedicated to all Benton County Purple Heart recipients, living or dead.

A Memorial Day Concert, with Willamette Valley Concert Band, Memorial Middle School Bell Choirs, Gale Hazel and Peter Butler, will take place at 7 p.m. at LaSells Stewart Center, Oregon State University. The event is sponsored by Mario Pastega of Corvallis, and Russell Tripp of Albany. For more information see www.willamettevalleyconcertband.org.