Photo courtesy of Van Johnson.
The nearly 200 year old cemetery that holds the final resting place of Clyde Barrow will once again be consistently cared for with the formation of the Western Heights Cemetery Association (WHCA).
The new nonprofit organization did not spawn out of nowhere. For the last two years, The Fort Worth Avenue Development Group has worked to restore and preserve the cemetery by adding updated headstones and new wildlife.
Ron Veech, president of Fort Worth Avenue Development Group (FWDG), said he initially got involved with the group to improve the Fort Worth Avenue corridor for a number of years, working with developers before presenting potential plans to city council.
“But now most of that land is already bought up,” he said. “There are new housing projects and retail projects all along the corridor, so our focus shifted more from working with developers to now working on beautification projects along the corridor.”
The cemetery was one of many beautification projects, but for years and years it had been neglected and abandoned, Veech said.
“In an effort to help us, we brought (in) Van Johnson to, for lack of a better term, be our cemetery caretaker,” he said. “And he’s done a really nice job of working to make big improvements over there at the cemetery.”
Johnson was a founding board of directors member for the development group and will now serve as the first president of Western Heights Cemetery Association. He is one of 12 Oak Cliff neighbors that make up the board of directors of the new nonprofit.
“You know a lot of neighborhoods have the crazy plant lady? I’m Oak Cliff’s crazy plant guy,” Johnson said.
In Fall 2023, the Constellation of Living Memorials from the Texas Historical Foundation and the Summerlee Foundation awarded $20,000 in grants for the Western Heights Cemetery. Johnson was their guy.
“It’s like two acres I didn’t have to pay for, you know. An extra two acres to add to my garden,” he said. “And what they did not know was my mother has been dragging through cemeteries since the time I could walk.”
Not only is Johnson big on gardening, but has comfort in the space and enjoys the historical aspect. He currently conducts tours of the cemetery along with his beautification efforts.
For the last two years, he worked with volunteers and FWDG members to put native plants in 50% of the cemetery while the land was on a mowing hiatus.
“And we got so many wildflowers that sprung up. We were just absolutely amazed,” Johnson said. “In April, it’s just full of all these yellow Engelmann daisies, and then early summer Coreopsis, but then by late summer and fall, it’s all these tall grasses and people don’t like that part.”
Part of the no mow territory was right along the fence by Fort Worth Avenue, which led to many complaints of the place going unkept. For decades that was true, but in reality those two years allowed for grant money to go toward care of the cemetery.
An example of stone cleaning and repair made possible by the grant from the Constellation of Living Memories from the Summerlee Foundation. Photo courtesy of Van Johnson.
The historic Western Heights Cemetery often changed ownership between several churches that went defunct.
“For the first time in the 177 year history, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, there is a dedicated, standalone organization that’s not going to be passed from church to church or organization to organization,” Johnson said. “This is an organization that is 100% focused on the cemetery for the first time ever.”
WHCA will officially take over at the start of 2026, with an upcoming fundraiser for the cemetery during Dia de los Muertos on Saturday, Nov. 1 from 2-5 p.m. Funds raised will go toward installing a water line, adding a bike rack, and continuing to restore headstones to keep up the care of this former blight into a local gem.
