Father and Son Ten Superior's Catholic Cemeteries

By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald

Plunketts, father and son, tend Superior's Catholic cemeteries

Jim Plunkett, sexton of Calvary Cemetery in Superior, eases a 130-pound granite grave marker into its permanent place during cold, wet weather on May 10. (Catholic Herald photo by A.M. Kelley)

SUPERIOR -- Father and son, Rolland and Jim Plunkett, spend their days on hallowed ground. Both men work in Superior Diocese's cemeteries as sextons, an occupation as old as mankind. But times are changing and the business of running a cemetery has modern challenges.

Rolland cares for St. Francis Cemetery, on the east end of Superior, and his son Jim is Calvary Cemetery's sexton on the city's south end.

When the younger Plunkett hired on he had two assistants -- one full time and one part time -- and during the summer months there was enough work for five more grass cutters. That was 24 years ago. Since then many graves have been added and whole new burial sections have been developed. The work has increased dramatically but costs have gone up too. Now Plunkett's budget allows him only one part-time helper.

When he came on the job there was a lot to learn but he already knew how to operate big equipment. Three of his uncles were farmers and he used to work for them as a kid. He's now 48 and besides caring for the approximately 45 acres of graves and keeping everything looking good, he works with families who want to buy plots, maintains the roads and equipment -- a backhoe, dump truck and tractor -- sets the monuments and flat-markers in place and digs graves and buries the dead, or in the language of the sexton trade, he "opens and closes."

"It's hard work," Plunkett said, "and it's never ending."

The cemetery is atop a scenic hill on the Pokegama River. As of May 9, there have been 11,303 burials there since 1901. Calvary is co-owned by the Cathedral of Christ the King and Holy Assumption parishs and according to Fr. Dan Dahlberg, cathedral rector, staying out of the red is a constant challenge. He depends on a special appeal each Memorial Day to make ends meet. "The upkeep of an older cemetery is costly," he said. "Perpetual care is now costly."

The plots purchased 25, 50 or 100 years ago were sold for a fraction of their values today. These must be maintained, yet no endowments foot the bill.

Calvary has many trees and is as beautiful as a state park. That's part of the difficulty of maintaining it. Tree roots damage graves and markers, and make for painstaking mowing. Now, individuals may no longer plant trees in the cemetery next to monuments and markers.

"But if they donate a tree," Plunkett said, "we'll plant it."

St. Francis Cemetery sits on the Nemadji River and with about 10 acres developed for burials, it's much smaller than Calvary. The first burial took place about 1911 and to date there are about 4,000 graves, according to Mary Margaret Sitek, St. Francis Parish secretary. In the 1950s, American Indians from burial grounds on Wisconsin Point were exhumed and moved into St. Francis Cemetery.

Rolland Plunkett's employment as a sexton dates back to 1991. He retired that year after carrying the U.S. mail for 33 years. His son needed a part-time helper at Calvary and hired him. When the job opened up at St. Francis, he took it over. He's 74 now and his work in the cemetery is part time.

The growing popularity of cremation has created another ripple in the funding problems of cemeteries. Since 1963 when approval was given for Catholics to choose this form of burial, cemeteries have had to make allowances for the new trend.

The remains of those who have been cremated -- the cremains -- can currently be buried two to a plot in the Superior cemeteries. Or one casket and one urn can share a single plot.

The Catholic church does not approve of the practice of scattering the ashes of one who has been cremated or storing them in an urn in one's home.

"(Cremains) should be contained in a worthy vessel and buried in a grave, mausoleum or columbarium," Bishop Raphael M. Fliss wrote in a 2002 pastoral letter on the Rite of Christian Burial.

Plunkett continues to make improvements at Calvary and would like to build an upright granite columbarium with niches to hold cremains. Two neighboring non-Catholic cemeteries, Graceland and Riverside, have such buildings.

"We have to get with the times," Plunkett said.

Although he's been in the profession for 24 years, still not every day on the job is routine. For instance, Plunkett had the sad duty of burying his 16-year-old son following a car accident, and also his sister.

When his son died, a sexton friend from another cemetery dug the grave for him. But he did prepare the site for his own sister.

"It's completely different," Plunkett said, "when you bury your own. A lot of things go through your mind."

In his pastoral letter, Fliss acknowledged that cemeteries could often be places of "deep emotion and pain É and visible reminders of the brevity of life." And this is why maintaining the beauty and dignity of burial grounds becomes ever more important to "nourish hope in the final resurrection."

Editor's note: On Memorial Day, May 29, there will be Masses at 9 a.m. at both Calvary Cemetery and St. Francis Cemetery.

© Superior Catholic Herald, 2006