US Armenian Cemetery Operations Impacted by COVID-19

During that roughly one-month period, there was a general limit of 10 people gathering, including in funerals, and that would include clergy. If both deacon and priest came, that only left room for 8 family members. Furthermore, Manning-Cartwright said, the group could only stay 15 minutes at the grave site. She exclaimed, “That is not enough time, especially if families wanted to see the casket lowered. We had to tell them, you’ll have to watch from your car. We felt that is following the rule but still letting the family witness the lowering.”

However, the cemetery had to do away with the practice of family members filling in the grave with dirt. She said, “That has been very hard on the families, and especially in some funerals the young men, the sons, grandsons and nephews, were devastated. They felt very strongly they wanted to do it.”

With the newer regulations, beginning at the very end of May, the number of people permitted at funerals was increased to 25, and the time limit extended to 30 minutes. With the larger number of people allowed, the canopy is now backed up further from the casket to allow the priest to take off his mask while speaking. However, this will be very hot in the sun for the priest, so in early June Manning-Cartwright said that the cemetery was going to come up with something to ameliorate the situation.

Families now did not have to go into their cars to watch the casket lowered, but still could not fill in the grave themselves. Chairs would be set up according to the social distancing rules, though people try to move them.

Manning-Cartwright repeated several times how difficult this period has been for the Armenian community, and consequently for her as well. She said, “I am told I get to be an honorary Armenian and I wear that with pride. The Armenian community here has welcomed me and I feel very connected to it. When you handle arrangements for people’s loved ones, you grow close to people. You care for them. There are a lot of families here I just adore.”

Holy Resurrection Armenian Cemetery of South Milwaukee

Armenians settled in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as early as 1910, and they established a church, Holy Resurrection Armenian Apostolic Church, in 1924. Their cemetery was opened in 1948. It is less than a mile from the church and next to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and the latter’s own cemetery, where Armenians used to be buried prior to its establishment.

The cemetery was started by the church but became an independent entity, pastor Fr. Sahak Kaishian said, possibly for administrative or tax purposes. The church community still takes care of the cemetery, and the chairman of the local parish council, Armen Hadjinian, is also chairman of the cemetery board. It contains about 400 graves at present (for some tombstone pictures, see http://www.usgwarchives.net/wi/cemetery/southmilwaukee-armenianstharoutum.html), and has its own caretakers.

Kaishian said that normally there were 5 burials a year, and there was no increase in burials this year due to the novel coronavirus. He said that no one from South Milwaukee’s Armenian community contracted the virus, as far as he was aware. There were only two or three burials in the last few months. The state restrictions, such as no church service, no wake and no more than 10 people at the gravesite were complied with, and when the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the governor’s stay-at-home order on May 13, this made it possible to also hold a wake for the last burial.

Hadjinian added that social distancing had to be practiced as part of the adherence to state laws during the COVID-19 crisis. Unlike other general cemeteries where there are Armenian sections, in Holy Resurrection, Hadjinian said, there are no other activities so it was easier to regulate the situation.

Hadjinian said that the local Armenians were all able to shelter in place and family members were looked after by relatives if need be. In general, South Milwaukee did not get hit as hard as many parts of the US, he said.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The newest Armenian cemetery in the United States is not in an area traditionally known for its Armenian population. Located in Baton Rouge, the cemetery belongs to St. Garabed Armenian Church of Louisiana, and serves the Armenian population of New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Although there were earlier Armenian immigrants to these cities, the majority came from Syria and Lebanon starting in the 1970s.

According to Sarkis Moutafian, treasurer of the parish council of this church, there are roughly 80 Armenian families in the two cities. After the community constructed a church, which was anointed in 2006, and an assembly hall next to it, they decided to purchase cemetery land, which lies behind the parking lot of the church. According to the church website, Serop Kaltakdjian, Vasken Kaltakdjian and Boghos Moutafian were the main financial donors toward the purchase of the cemetery land.

Catholicos Karekin II came from Echmiadzin in 2007 to bless the cemetery. In 2010 a large khachkar (cross stone) was placed there in memory of the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide.

Moutafian said that at present the cemetery has somewhere around 10-12 graves and the lot is large enough to accommodate many more. No one was buried during the coronavirus period so the restrictions created by COVID-19 did not have to be dealt with. As far as visitation to the cemetery goes, there is a gate in front of it, and Moutafian said that all those with loved ones buried there have keys and can visit anytime they wish.

Ocala, Florida

There is a fourth Armenian cemetery in the United States located in Ocala. It is also of recent origin and is taken care of by the Armenian American Cultural Society of that town. Some of the founding members of that organization are buried in this cemetery.

The cemetery apparently is connected to the sad tale of the two rival Armenian churches built in this town, St. Sarkis Armenian Church, which belonged to the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (consecrated in 1997), and Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Church, which was a chapel connected with the Eastern Prelacy for a period of time, located at the end of a hall.

Both churches no longer are operational but the cemetery lies in a plot of land between the two. The hall and the chapel which used to be the Holy Cross church belong to the independent cultural society. St. Sarkis Church is being rented out to non-Armenians at present.

The website Find A Grave presents photos of 11 graves located in the cemetery, which according to the photographer is the unchanged current number. The earliest grave pictured is from 2000 and the last one listed dates from 2016. According to Charles Takesian, one of the Armenian American Cultural Society members, three of the graves contain caskets and the others are cremation remains.

The Find A Grave website gives two names to the cemetery — Holy Cross Armenian Cemetery and Saint Sarkis Armenian Cemetery, while the gate bears the former name. It is not clear whether both names are still used.

The coronavirus pandemic does not seem to have affected the cemetery directly. There have not been any burials there during the period of its spread so far.