Rocheport Cemetery Association: Who Keeps the Grounds

Rocheport’s historic city cemetery doesn’t maintain itself — a small nonprofit called the Rocheport Cemetery Association quietly does that work. Volunteers mow and clear brush, straighten and clean old headstones, keep the plot map, and place a flag on every veteran’s grave.

The association describes its work in a letter posted on a Rocheport community bulletin board this year. It lists a mailing address of P.O. Box 135, Rocheport, MO 65279, and a phone number, 573-823-2691. Federal nonprofit records list the group under EIN 84-2067600, with an address at 185 County Road 433, Rocheport, MO.

What does the association actually do?

Its volunteers monitor the grounds and markers, clear brush and fallen trees, and restore and clean historic gravestones. They keep the cemetery’s plot map on file to help families track down a relative’s grave. Every year, the association places a flag on each veteran’s grave and keeps it there, and every December it adds a Christmas wreath to each veteran’s marker. For families who can’t make the trip to Rocheport themselves, the association says it will place flowers at a grave on their behalf.

Burial lots are still available, including options for cremation memorials and cenotaphs. The association asks anyone with family history, old photographs or plot deeds connected to the cemetery to get in touch, since it’s building out its records as it goes. It describes itself as 501(c)(3)-eligible, and says visitors are welcome at the cemetery any time.

Why does this matter right now?

Veterans Day falls on Wednesday, Nov. 11, which is exactly the kind of date this association’s flag program is built around — every marked veteran’s grave in the cemetery should already be flying one. It’s a smaller-scale, Rocheport-specific echo of other Veterans Day gestures around the area this week, like Finger Lakes State Park’s free camping night for veterans in Boone County.

The cemetery sits alongside the rest of Rocheport’s history that the town has worked to preserve, from the Friends of Rocheport Historical Society’s research into the town’s 19th-century figures to the markers the association tends today. Anyone wanting to donate, ask about a burial lot, or share family history on a grave can reach the association by mail or phone at the contacts above.