Volunteers clean veterans’ graves leading up to Memorial Day parade

ROYAL OAK — For many years, the Royal Oak Memorial Society has organized efforts in May to clean veterans’ graves at Oakview Cemetery, and this year a group of high school students joined in on the day. 

The grave site cleanings have been going on for more than 20 years, according to Sue Fabian, who led the volunteer effort. This year the cleaning took place on May 2 and May 9, from 10 a.m. to noon.

“A woman by the name of Carol Hennessey began this project, and in her explanation of what happened, she was out at the cemetery, and as she was walking around, she fell in a little hole and twisted her ankle,” Fabian said. “And as she looked at the headstone and cleaned it off, she found out it was a veteran’s headstone, and she said, ‘We can’t have this,’ and she started organizing volunteers to clean off the graves ahead of Memorial Day.”

Fabian said she took over leading the volunteers from Hennessey around three years ago. 

“My father was also a World War II veteran, so when I knew that she was becoming more incapable of doing it, I mentioned to her, Carol, when it becomes that time you have to let this go, I just want you to know that I will take it over, because I want to keep this effort going,” Fabian said. “It’s really important, and really important to me on behalf of my father, and it was important to me on behalf of all the veterans that are there whose families have moved on.”

Cleaning the gravestones not only makes the cemetery look good, but it also brings the stories of those who passed on back to life. 

“I found a grave, a headstone that was sunk into the turf, and you could hardly see it, and it took me half an hour to clean that marker,” Fabian said. “It was a World War II veteran, and I thought ‘Well, for the heck of it, let me google his name,’ and I found out that he went on to become a minister. All of these people have a story, and they fought in probably the worst war in human history.”

The stories and legacies the veterans hold are what keep Fabian so invested in this effort. 

“We stand on their shoulders. Something had to be done. I just couldn’t see that effort of Carol’s going by the wayside,” she said. “I had to do something about it.”

Judy Davids, Royal Oak community engagement specialist, was the lead for the 30 high school students who volunteered during the cleanup. 

“Colin Bibbs, the student representative on the Veterans Events Committee, recruited dozens of Royal Oak High School students to help locate and clean those graves,” Davids said. “In some cases, the markers had become partially or completely covered by grass and had clearly not been visited in many years. Finding some of them was difficult.”

Davids said that the students were very careful when cleaning the graves and were given background information and photographs when available to better understand the lives behind the names.

“It was powerful to watch the students carefully clean and mark the graves of service members who, in many cases, were not much older than the students themselves when they were killed in action,” she said. “Many are buried beside parents who outlived them by decades.”

Fabian said that there are around 2,000 to 3,000 veterans’ graves at Oakview, and that anybody can come and help clean them up whenever they feel like it. 

“Each year we clean a couple hundred,” she said. “But people are more than welcome to come anytime to do this. The veterans’ graves are not in one area — there are concentrations, but they are all over the cemetery. You can find them in any section. So, if you want to go, have a nice afternoon, grab some supplies, and go look for veterans’ graves to clean, that would be great.”

To continue the celebration and honor the fallen veterans, the annual Royal Oak Memorial Day Parade will be taking place at 9 a.m. May 25. 

The parade will proceed north along Main Street to the ceremony at Centennial Commons, according to Davids. The 2026 grand marshal is James L. Converse, who was born in Massillon, Ohio, on Aug. 20, 1929. 

Converse enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1951 during the Korean War and served in Alaska after completing training in Colorado and California, Davids said, where he was responsible for maintaining cold weather defense equipment in extreme arctic conditions and received the National Defense Service Medal in 1954. 

Converse moved to Royal Oak with his wife, Mary, in 1963, where they raised nine children.

For more information on the parade, visit romi.gov.