How Oakland Cemetery, home to Rusty the dog and 130 years of Dallas history, got new life | SharonFGrigsby
Under the watchful eye of its shaggy stray mascot, an unlikely crew ensures this burial ground isn’t lost.
Oakland, which opened in 1892, only 51 years after our city’s founding, is 48.7 acres of serenity, stately trees and extraordinary monuments adorned with angels, saints and Greek statuary. Their work to save the entire cemetery began in early 2020 after City Council member Adam Bazaldua enlisted Dallas civic leader Lynn McBee to help create a new Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners Association board.
Every day is an adventure, whether it’s removing dead chickens or finding workarounds for ailing lawn equipment. “Every dollar goes right back into the cemetery,” Monica said. “What doesn’t show … is the thousands of hours of volunteer work it’s taken to get to this place. If we were paying for those hours of work, the expenses would be more than double.”
In the almost three years since Rusty showed up, he has come to slowly trust Tom, Monica and gatekeeper and landscape worker Armando Gonzalez, the cemetery’s other part-time employee. The day I visited Oakland Cemetery, I watched Rusty from a few yards away as he chowed down on “pizza bones” from the lunch brought by another board member and regular volunteer, 41-year-old Rafael Rivera.
A walk among the cemetery’s 27,000 plots feels like a who’s who of old establishment Dallas — Abrams, Armstrong, Caruth, Crowdus, Ervay, Exall, Fitzhugh and Kiest.
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