115 Front Street, Minnesota City, Minnesota
Contact: Lori Donehower, lori@mec-pro.com

Watch this page for upcoming Oakland Cemetery Newsletters and Announcements.

CEMETERY CLEAN-UP ON SATURDAY, MAY 3

**DUE TO BAD WEATHER, THE CEMETERY CLEAN-UP IS BEING RESCHEDULED FOR SAT. MAY 10, STARTING AT 8:00 AM. POTLUCK LUNCH IS AT NOON.

The Oakland Cemetery Association of Minnesota City will hold its eleventh annual spring clean-up on Saturday, May 3, 2008 beginning at 8 AM. A potluck lunch will follow at noon. In case of bad weather, the workday will be held the following Saturday, May 10.

Plans for this workday include mowing, trimming around stones, raking, picking up branches, brush cutting, filling in some low spots with black dirt, repainting the storage shed, and generally cleaning up the cemetery. Please come ready to work and bring your tools such as rakes, shovels, pruning shears, weed eaters, etc. Whether you are able to work or not, you are invited to join us for the noon lunch.

Our condolences to the family and friends of Ervin Mrozek, Allen Whetstone, Charles Dean, and Jule Mastenbrook. Our thoughts are with all those who are grieving a loss.

Monetary donations are always appreciated to help defray the costs of maintaining and improving the cemetery. Donations may be mailed to Lori Donehower, 120 Dakota Street, Minnesota City, MN 55959. Donations can be earmarked for a specific purpose and can be given in honor or in memory of someone and will be acknowledged as such. Lots are available at a cost of $350 each. To inquire, please contact Lori at 507-689-4344.

In an effort to make the Cemetery easier to mow and look more attractively maintained, We have set up guidelines for grave decorations. Please consider the use of an urn stand for your flowers or decorations. The urn stand should be placed in or as close as possible to the cement base of the headstone. Any flowers or memorabilia left on the ground and not on the stones, the cement base, or in an urn stand will be removed at the next mowing. Plantings, shrubs, or urn stands which inhibit mowing will be moved or removed. These guidelines also include the removal of past seasonal arrangements from urn stands twice a year in May and November. If you want to keep an arrangement to use the next year, please remove the arrangement yourself or contact a Board member.

SPECIAL EVENT PLANNED FOR SATURDAY, MAY 17

Gen O’Grady of the Minnesota City Historical Association has the following announcement. As part of the Minnesota City Day observance of the State Sesquicentennial, the Minnesota City Historical Association has gathered profiles of persons whose markers in the Oakland Cemetery have military inscriptions. On May 17, information about these individuals will be displayed at the Oakland Cemetery from 12:30 to 2 PM. This event will be hosted by Oakland Cemetery Board Members, Howard and Gladys Volkart. Everyone is invited to this informal gathering to view the biographies and share memories and pictures about the Minnesota City area and its living and deceased residents.

Also on Saturday, May 17, the Minnesota City Historical Association will host the Second Minnesota Battery of Light Artillery Civil War Reenactors at the Oakland Cemetery. They will be in attendance at the cemetery between the hours of 10 AM to 2 PM. Please watch the newspaper or the website for exact times of their program and artillery demonstration which includes the firing of a cannon. The Second Minnesota Battery Reenactors are a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Civil War history by living it. They are based in Red Wing but members come from Wisconsin, the Twin Cities Metro Area, and Southeastern Minnesota.

Please check the Minnesota City website – www.minnesotacity.org – for further details and for information about the Oakland Cemetery.

Memorial Day Commemoration

The 80th Memorial Day Program sponsored by American Legion Post 9 and Auxiliary; Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1287, and Auxiliary; Disabled American Veterans, Hiawatha Chapter 35 and Auxiliary, and 40/8 Voiture 580 will include their annual commemoration at Oakland Cemetery in Minnesota City on Monday, May 26. Time is tentatively set for 8:00am.

BOARD MEMBERS:

• Kelvin Penrod, chair -- 689-2541
• Lori Donehower, Sec/Treas -- 689-4344
• David Kleinbach -- 689-2691
• Hollis Donehower -- 689-4344
• Judy Kleinbach -- 689-2691
• Howard Volkart -- 689-2567
• Gladys Volkart -- 689-2567
• Susan Althoff -- 689-2281
• Len Mastenbrook -- 689-2268