Volunteer takes care of cemeteries

BELLA VISTA — Dorothy Miller is looking for used PVC pipes. She’s also constantly watching for lots that can be used by Habitat for Humanity homes. And she needs to recruit some volunteers who can do the typing for her cemetery projects.

At 75, the Bella Vista resident has no intention of slowing down.

She got involved with the Cemetery Preservation Group when she was driving a truck for Benton County. Then County Judge Gary Black asked her to look at one of the old cemeteries out in the county and she never stopped looking.

The Cemetery Preservation Group includes Miller and about 15 others. They document the old cemeteries scattered around Benton County.

The PVC pipe will become markers for some of the unmarked graves in those cemeteries.

There are always more graves and even entire cemeteries to be found, she said.

Last week, she spent a couple of mornings at the Centerton Inn, which has delicious Belgian waffles. But while she enjoyed the waffles, she was telling some of her contacts about the buildings that will soon be moved out of the area or demolished so new housing can be built.

As the buildings are demolished, she may find a use for some of the materials herself, or she will pass them on to others who can use old barn wood and other reclaimed materials.

All she asks in return is a donation to the Cemetery Preservation Group.

She has a storage unit full of reclaimed material waiting to be used.

Besides marking graves and organizing information about the cemeteries and their occupants, Miller also helps clean the stones. It takes a special solution that kills the lichen that grows on cement and she’s constantly fundraising to pay for it.

“I talk to everybody,” she said. And it pays off. She has a network of people watching for scrap, such as the PVC pipe, and information for her. If someone stumbles on information about a deceased Benton County resident, Miller usually hears about it. She has the files for the group at her home so she can work on them whenever she has a few minutes free.

“I’ve been getting behind,” she said. She has records from funeral homes and monument companies that need to be formatted and added to the website, but when covid-19 caused the shutdown last spring, some of her volunteers stopped coming.

She hasn’t been able to keep up without their help so she’s looking for more volunteers.

Recently she recruited Boy Scout groups to help with the cemetery upkeep. They will mow and weed eat. Sometimes they repair fences. She usually lets them chose which jobs they would like to do and they do very good work, she said.

She also uses the work detail from the county jail on occasion.

For 25 years, Miller worked as a dispatcher in the trucking company she owned with her husband. She uses the skills she learned there every day.

She gets up at 3:30 every morning and is out of her house by 8. There’s no telling when she’ll be back. “I love everything I do,” she said.

While Miller can do many different things, there’s one area where she has trouble.

“I’m not a housekeeper; I’m a machine operator,” she said.

The Cemetery Preservation Group includes Miller and about 15 others. They document the old cemeteries scattered around Benton County.

Miller