Hernando County Cemetery Preservation Society is a group that has formed to clean up and restore cemeteries in Hernando County. They started by cleaning up Tucker Hill cemetery. They chose this cemetery, because it was in moderate disrepair. There are other cemeteries where cleaning up will require removing trees and will be a major undertaking.
They are in the process of forming a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. The officers of the new corporation are as follows: Laverne Hammock Tornow (President), Elaine Sullivan (First vice president), Franke Springstead (Second VP), Frank Rossetti (Treasury) and Karen Synychak (Secretary). The goal of the organization is to protect, preserve and restore the abandoned rural cemeteries in the county.
Several members of this group have been trying to put something together for a number of years. Mrs. Tornow stated that a ground swell of interest in protecting and restoring the cemeteries sparked by the CEMEX mining expansion. Adjacent to the planned expansion are the five cemeteries to the south of Fort Dade: Wall, Law, Peterson, Spring Hill, and the Confederate Soldier Cemetery. There are also two more just across Fort Dade: the Lykes and Ayres cemeteries.
Over of the years many of the cemeteries have languished forgotten. There has even been vandalism of some cemeteries. In 2009 two teens stole a skull from the Spring Hill cemetery. Mrs. Tornow stated that the cemetery at Bayport has had its headstones stolen twice.
Mrs. Tornow also provided a background of the cemeteries in Hernando County. She said that there are 55 known cemeteries and it is likely that there are many more homestead burials in the county. Many of these cemeteries and homestead burial sites are between 100 to 150 years old and many have not had any burials within living memory.
The group has received a lot of community support. Their facebook group already has 56 members. Coney Island Drive Inn is a sponsor and provided a bench for the Tucker Hill Cemetery. To help this newly formed group restore our cemeteries businesses can adopt a cemetery after it has been restored. This is similar to the adopt a road program. The business would essentially be the caretakers of the cemetery. Also business sponsorship is available for $25 per year and individual sponsorship for $10 per year.
