Evergreen Cemetery gravestones defaced

Posted on September 7, 2017
Evergreen Cemetery
Several headstones at Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington were vandalized this week. (Photo courtesy Facebook/Tina Crow)

By Sean Copeland

BLOOMINGTON – The manager of Bloomington’s historic Evergreen Cemetery says she’s disheartened after finding graffiti spraypainted on two tombstones earlier this week.

Evergreen Manager Tina Crow says a cemetery visitor alerted her to one stone that was vandalized. and found the second one nearby. Though Crow says it’s uncommon for this sort of thing to happen, it does happen… and it makes her angry.

Both are on the east central side of the 87-acre property near the tombstone for Dorothy Gage; the namesake of Dorothy Gale in the 1939 classic film, ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ Though Dorothy Gage’s stone was not damaged, Crow believes the other two stones were defaced overnight on Tuesday.

She hopes to find a solvent that can remove the paint…without ruining the stones. If not… they’ll be replaced at a heavy cost to the cemetery.

“If we can’t find the right solvent without harming the tombstones, the only way to take care of it would be replacing the tombstone,” said Crow. “And with these two big tombstones… that’s going to be very costly. I can’t even imagine what it would be to replace them.”

Crow said anyone with information about who committed the vandalism can call (309) 827-6950.

Sean Copeland can be reached at [email protected].

 

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