Oak Hill Cemetery is not a park. And it’s not for recreation.

So the city sign at the cemetery frustrates Martha Learned. The sign identifies the property as part of a larger cemetery district run by Lawrence Parks and Recreation but doesn’t mention the cemetery’s longtime name.

“Nobody’s playing football in the cemetery lots,” said Learned, 77, a lifelong Lawrence resident whose family has historic roots in the community.

Learned took her argument this week to City Manager Mike Wildgen, who agreed to revamp the sign to include the cemetery’s name.

“We’re going to adjust the sign to make it clear that Oak Hill is the site of the sign,” Wildgen said after meeting with Learned Tuesday afternoon.

Oak Hill Cemetery in East Lawrence has been the final resting place for Lawrence residents since 1865. It is the site of burial plots for many significant Lawrence residents, among them fiery politician and Jayhawker Gen. James H. Lane; Kansas University’s legendary basketball, coach Forrest “Phog” Allen; Congressman and founder of Haskell Indian Nations University, Dudley C. Haskell; and several victims of Quantrill’s Raid.

“To my knowledge, that’s a historical place,” said Learned, who said she decorated about 20 graves of family members at the cemetery every Memorial Day.

The sign that offended Learned is not at the entrance to the cemetery; a sign there still marks the location as Oak Hill Cemetery. Instead, the green-paneled sign sits down the road and identifies the land as part of a city cemetery district that includes Maple Hill Cemetery, and says, in larger letters, “Parks and Recreation.” The department oversees both cemeteries.

Wildgen said the sign was meant to designate the headquarters of the cemetery district, not to identify the cemetery itself.

“The cemetery entrance is 150 feet away,” he said. “This is not the sign to show where the cemetery is or the entrance to the cemetery.”

But that didn’t satisfy Learned.

“If they had put on the sign, ‘Oak Hill Cemetery’ … and underneath it put ‘Parks and Recreation,’ that wouldn’t be bad at all,” she said.

After their meeting Tuesday, Wildgen agreed. The sign should be changed by next week, he said.

“I’m going to wait and see if it happens,” Learned said Wednesday.

Cemeteries and the people buried within, she said, should be treated with extra dignity.

“It’s their last stop,” she said. “And it should be honored.”

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