CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. — Buried at the historic Crystal Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Crystal River are mothers, fathers, veterans, and loved ones.
"They were the teachers. They were the restaurant workers, who loved the children, who taught the children, are buried right here, who built this county,” said Andrea McCray.
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It's a place close to McCray's heart.
"My niece, who passed away at the age of 28, is buried here along with my mother, my father, both of my grandmothers, and my great-grandparents also reside here,” she said.
McCray is the President of Friends of Crystal Memorial Gardens Cemetery, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the cemetery.
"There's no official record of many of the people who reside here,” said McCray. “We formed the Friends of the Crystal Memorial Gardens to care for the cemetery and also to try to get records established for the cemetery."
The group reached out to Tampa Bay 28 to showcase their preservation efforts. Volunteers in the community maintain the cemetery.
"We noticed how overgrown at the time the cemetery was, and we wanted to do something,” she said. "Our cemetery is 141 years old, and she needs a lot of love."
McCray said it's a historically Black cemetery dating back to 1884, before Citrus County was even formed.
It's also faced its challenges.
"We're losing gravesites to the flooding,” said McCray. “They're actually sinking under the earth."
But their work hasn't stopped.
"GPR scanning, we've selected a company that we'll be working with that will do a flood mitigation study for us,” she said.
It’s a community-led effort to make sure the past is not forgotten.
"It's family. It's legacy,” said McCray. “It's community. It's what we do."
A community clean-up is planned for Saturday, October 4, from 8:00 a.m. to noon at the cemetery located at 9640 W. Garden Street in Crystal River. Water bottles and lunch will be provided, but volunteers are asked to bring supplies like gloves, shovels, and hand tools.
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