Cherishing the fallen: Workers at Missouri Veterans Cemetery in Bloomfield take pride in upkeep

The door to the welcome center of the Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield opens and a bell chimes, a family is looking for assistance to find their loved one's grave.

Paul Martin, manning the front desk, retrieves a golf cart and takes the family to the grave.

"It's just things like that," Tammy Smith, director of the Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield, said. "They're insignificant to some people, but to the person who is trying to go to that grave and couldn't make it, that was pretty significant."

Martin and Smith are just two of the eight faces behind keeping the grounds of the cemetery pristine and who give the respect and attention to the families of the service members laid to rest there. The cemetery spreads across 64 acres: 38 developed and 26 undeveloped.

Chris Wirz has been a cemetery worker for a year and a half at the Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield.

Pamela Woodrow adjusts the flowers of her husband's grave while visiting him at the Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield.

"I feel like I'm doing my part for the veterans," he said. "It's an honor to be able to keep this place looking good and ... I do a lot of the burials, and it's a little bit of closure for family and stuff, [to] make sure they have a nice place they can lay their loved one to rest."

Wirz is one of four cemetery workers who perform the typical groundskeeping duties to ensure the grounds are to the highest standards. Mowing, clearing weeds, tractor-related duties and equipment management are just a few of their duties. Three times a year -- Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Fourth of July -- the crew puts up the Avenue of Flags. They also all work burials and spend time with families who are grieving or visiting.

"I'd say probably one of the most rewarding things is when we're out there and people come up and talk to us," Wirz said.

"I've heard stories from families about veterans that I've buried personally," he said. "It's kind of cool that they can come up to you on a personal level and talk to you that way and understand that we're doing our part."

There is a unanimous feeling of honor and privilege among the staff of the Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield.

ABOVE: Chris Wirz, cemetery worker for a year and a half, mows grass as part of his duties at the Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield Thursday. "It~s an honor to be able to keep this place looking good," Wirz said. TOP RIGHT: Frances Turnbow places flowers at her husband Boyd Turnbow's grave. BOTTOM RIGHT: Headstones are seen in rows.

"We're just honored to be able to serve veterans and their families," said Shannon Collier, maintenance supervisor. "We're here, we have a job to do, and we just want to do it to our best all the time to make this place as pristine for the ones that served."

Before coming to work at the cemetery in 2003, Smith was employed in the medical field. When she joined the cemetery staff, she was unsure of what she was about to take on. In the end, Smith discovered a passion for a job giving back to a community of people she finds to be very special.

"There's no other person like a veteran, there really isn't," Smith said. "What they've sacrificed -- and (what) they've done -- just so we can have the freedoms we have today; they're very special people and, like I said, I work for no better."

kjackson@semissourian.com

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Frances Turnbow places flowers at her husband Boyd Turnbow's grave at the Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield Thursday, May 23, 2019, in Bloomfield.KASSI JACKSON