City upgrades Rose Hill Cemetery

Grave Site of Otis Henry (Photo by Field Walsh)
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rose-hill-texarkanaTEXARKANA, TEXAS— The City of Texarkana, Texas has recently completed upgrades to the Rose Hill Cemetery, located at Lelia and Phenie Streets in downtown Texarkana. Among other improvements, a new, automatic gate has been installed. Beginning today, Monday, February 13th, cemetery hours will be from 6:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
The City inherited the cemetery from private owners, and within the last year has removed debris, cleaned up the fence line, replaced row and section markers, and is working to rehab headstones as budget allows.

The cemetery is filled with beautiful, ornate headstones, some dating back to the Depression Era. The most notable feature of the property is the grave site of Otis Henry, the first man from Bowie County to die in WWI, according to the Smithsonian Institute. The statue was recently rehabilitated by City staff, who scrubbed clean the white marble, edged the grass, and cleaned the wrought iron gate surrounding the monument.

According to a survey by the Smithsonian Institute completed in 1993, the statue depicts four separate full-length figures, two of Otis Henry himself, and two more of females, one an angel and the other dressed in a long robe. While Henry died in 1918, his mother did not have the statues installed until 1930.

The cemetery also contains two rows of military headstones in the center, for soldiers from World War II, The Korean War and other wars. All plots in Rose Hill cemetery are sold, and are the private property of the individual or family members. While the City maintains the cemetery, burial proceedings are a matter of private business.

For more information about the cemetery, or for burial information, visit http://www.ci.texarkana.tx.us/185/Rose-Hill-Cemetery.

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