07/23/2023
Summer is not Tammy Millsap’s favorite time of the year. She is superintendent of Enid Cemetery, and when the grass is growing, she may have one of the worst jobs in town.
“This year has been particularly rough,” Millsap said. “We’ve had 16 inches of rain, and the grass is loving it but we are not.”
The biggest problem with the rain and the humidity is being able to mow. On most days they start mowing at 6:30-7 a.m. but can’t do it when it is wet or raining.
Millsap woke up Friday morning to more rain, and said it is discouraging when she has a burial to get ready for and more mowing to do.
“We will supervise a burial, do a grave closing and of course, more w**d eating,” Millsap said.
When she speaks of we, she is including Craig Robertson, who is on the cemetery board and is helping her.
“I hired a guy to work on Monday and he quit by noon,” Robertson said. “This month we hired six people and they all quit.”
Walking around the cemetery carrying a grass trimmer in the heat is a tough job. They can’t let just anyone mow because of the possible damage to headstones.
“People do not understand some of these headstones are thousands of dollars and we have to be beyond careful, Millsap said.
On Thursday, at 2 p.m. when the temperature was over 95, Millsap was on a mower going quickly between the markers.
Her system is to make sure areas where they have a burial planned will be mowed first, followed by areas closest to where people will be.
“I’m mowing as fast as I can with my goal to get everything mowed and trimmed and start over again,” she said. “Right now, social media and chit-chat groups are brutal with their comments and criticisms.”
Millsap said she would talk to anyone face to face and listen to their complaints and suggest ways to do better.
“They are paper tigers, and it gets old fast,” Robertson said. “We work as hard as we can with what we have.”
The first four lots in Enid Cemetery were sold in 1897 for $10, and now it is estimated there are more than 30,000 markers in the cemetery.
Millsap got involved in the cemetery as a volunteer in 2009 after her son died and was buried there.
“It was another tough year and they were having trouble keeping up so I got busy with a w**d eater. It was easy to see their challenges,” Millsap said.
In May 2010, she became superintendent of the cemetery and has sunk her heart into making it the best she can. Millsap does frequent fundraisers and the past year, the cemetery took over running the popular Tombstone Tales.
The cost of a plot is $1,195 and there is an opening and closing fee for burial. This can range from $900 to $1,150 depending who does the work. Millsap operates the cemetery-owned backhoe equipment if she can get to the plot.
“Some of them are so close together I have to hire a company with a special machine,” she said.
Millsap said if there are no funerals, there is no income. Her customers only pay once and it is forever.
“We are the old style, and most other cemeteries are double the price,” Millsap said. “This is no place to get rich and this is my second job.”
Robertson suggested those who are not happy with how the cemetery currently looks to come out and bring their grass trimmers. They have to limit non-employee mowing because of liability concerns but careful grass trimming around stones is permitted.
“We have to be careful because little nicks are noticed,” Millsap said. “It has been a really tough summer with the rain and I’m ready for it to be over.”
Millsap can be reached at (580) 572-1623.
