Heart Cemetery

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along as best I can. Out on the High Plains of Lipscomb County, there's a cemetery shaped like a heart. That's not poetry.

That's not metaphor. The land itself was laid out in the shape of a heart, and that is exactly how Heart Cemetery got its name. The marker says so plain as day.

But to understand why that cemetery exists at all, you have to back up a few years and follow a railroad. The Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway extended their line through this stretch of Texas, and when they did, a town got platted in 1917. They named it Booker, after B.F.

Booker, a civil engineer for that very railway. A town platted along a new line has a way of drawing people, and the folks who came to Booker largely came from La Kemp, Oklahoma, relocating to this new railroad town and putting down roots in unfamiliar Texas soil. Now, a growing community needs certain things.

Schools. Churches. Somewhere to bury its dead.

That last need became undeniable, and in 1925, Harry Herbert and Mary Agnes Mitchell, she was a Mullinex before she married, donated a parcel of land to the town for use as a graveyard. Four years passed. Then in 1929, the City of Booker made it official, dedicating the land as Heart Cemetery, named for that distinctive heart-shaped design.

Over the years it's also been called Booker Cemetery, but Heart Cemetery is the name that stuck. The earliest marked grave belongs to Y.E. Winn, who died in 1911 and was reinterred here from his original burial site in Missouri.

Think about that. Someone made sure he came home to Booker, even from Missouri, even after death. Among the notable gravesites you'll find Dr.

I.T. Smith, the town's first physician. There's William Vernon Shouse, a businessman with a hand in oil, real estate, and manufacturing.

And there are the Mitchells themselves, Harry Herbert and Mary Agnes, the two people who gave the land in the first place, now resting in it. Community doctors, teachers, ministers, farmers, ranchers, and veterans are buried here too, veterans of military conflicts going all the way back to World War I. In 1966, a park and cemetery board formed to oversee the property.

It ran things until 1975, when the board dissolved and the City of Booker took over operations directly. The city still cares for the burial ground today. Heart Cemetery has been serving Booker since 1929, and it keeps right on serving the community and the surrounding area, chronicling lives that reach all the way back to the pioneer days of settlement.

A heart-shaped piece of ground holding a whole town's history. Out here on the plains, that's not nothing.

What the marker says

Heart Cemetery has served the community of Booker since 1929. The town was platted in 1917 and named for B.F. Booker, a civil engineer for the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway, which extended their line through this area. The community consisted of residents from La Kemp, Oklahoma, who relocated here to the new railroad town. A local cemetery became necessary as the community grew. In 1925, Harry Herbert and Mary Agnes (Mullinex) Mitchell donated land to the town for use as a graveyard. In 1929, the City of Booker dedicated the land as Heart Cemetery; the name comes from its heart-shaped design. Historically, the burial ground has also been known as Booker Cemetery. The earliest marked grave is that of Y.E. Winn (d. 1911), reinterred here from his original burial site in Missouri. Notable gravesites include those of the town's first physician, Dr. I.T. Smith; businessman William Vernon Shouse, who was involved in oil, real estate and manufacturing; and the property donors, the Mitchells. Community doctors, teachers, ministers, farmers, ranchers and other residents are also buried here. Other graves include veterans of military conflicts dating from World War I. In 1966, a park and cemetery board formed to oversee the property. The board dissolved in 1975, leaving the operation under the direction of the City of Booker, which still cares for the burial ground. Heart Cemetery continues to serve the community of Booker and the surrounding area, chronicling the lives of residents dating to the pioneer days of settlement. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006