Faye Driver Fugua, Jim Driver, Greg Driver, Bert Driver, Cornelia Overton and Bethel Thomas Jr. recently met to discuss the lead gift the Driver family made to the Smithville Town Cemetery Beautification Project. The Driver family’s gift of trees will line the cemetery side of Congress Boulevard and provide a magnificent entrance from Highways 70 and 56 into the heart of downtown Smithville.
Founded in 1838, this historic cemetery has primarily undergone basic maintenance. The late Tommy Webb, county historian, in recent years had overseen the cemetery and its maintenance. Before his death in October 2019, Mr. Webb asked Bethel Thomas, Jr. to lead a campaign to restore some of the original beauty to the cemetery. Initial funds raised allowed for the beginning of the restoration of the iron fence. Then came Covid.
Now, this lead gift of trees from the Driver family will significantly add beauty to the cemetery. The fence on the Congress Boulevard side of the cemetery will be completed next and a major fundraising effort will raise monies for the rest of the beautification project. Note also that Cornelia Overton Mallozzi, is a landscape architect volunteering her time to this project. She, her husband, and her baby daughter, are now active residents of Smithville.
We are very proud to note that Suzanne Williams, Executive Director of the Smithville/DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce, is collaborating with the Friends of the Cemetery, and engaging other Chamber members to help with the cemetery project as it aligns perfectly with other beautification efforts for downtown Smithville.
Stay tuned for additional information. A group of friends of the cemetery is currently meeting with plans to fully engage the Town Cemetery Association again. Who can be a member? Anyone who has family or friends buried in the cemetery, as well as any civic-minded person interested in this historic space.