BY JANE BLOODWORTH ROWE
VIRGINIA BEACH — Leon Fentress, a young U.S. Army corporal serving in Vietnam, died when a truck that he was a passenger in ran over a landmine on Feb. 1, 1970.
He was just one month shy of his 21st birthday.
Fentress was buried in the cemetery at Piney Grove Baptist Church on Holland Road. Over the decades, his grave became overgrown with encroaching vines and bushes.
Christopher Farms resident Michael Kennedy, who has a passion for genealogy, and the Rev. D.L. Williams, senior pastor of the church, uncovered the final resting place of Fentress together on Tuesday, Feb 1 — on an anniversary of the day Fentress died in service to his country.
This experience – locating an American military member’s grave for a veterans’ organization that had reached out to Kennedy – led to a united effort to clean up overgrown areas of the historic cemetery.
Volunteers including church members and community members met on Saturday, April 16, to clean the overgrown areas on the far western side of the cemetery, where a buffer of trees had expanded to claim some gravesites.
They uncovered at least one unknown grave after years of apparently being buried under soil and tree debris and bearing no headstone.
Other graves were also unmarked, and the inscription on some headstones had become illegible over the decades.
There are at least 160 identified graves on this site, Williams said, and he believes that the number is closer to 250.
Some of the names on the tombstones are familiar Princess Anne County family names, including Etheridge, Fentress and Butts.
About 20 volunteers armed with work gloves, saws, rakes and shovels came out on this overcast morning to help with what church members hope will be the first of many clean-ups. The timing on Holy Saturday was particularly important, Williams said.
“Our vision is to clean up this cemetery,” Williams said, and beginning it on Easter weekend was important. “We are celebrating the coming of Jesus.”
Most of the volunteers were adults, but there were a few teenagers, some of whom were recruited by their grandparents.
“We put out the word at church and then grabbed some grandkids,” said Teddy Griffin, a deacon at the church.
Jahmire Whitehurst, a Salem High School junior and Griffin’s grandson, said that he enjoyed the opportunity to do community service. He said it was meaningful to realize this cemetery is a part of his heritage.
He approached Williams, who worked with him to locate the grave. Now they and others want to continue their efforts to clean up the overgrown areas and restore some gravesites.
The church members also hope to preserve the cemetery’s rustic charm and its tall trees.
“We don’t want to come in and cut down a whole lot of trees,” Griffin said, who believes that they can remove much of the undergrowth and debris without removing the trees.
The original church building was probably located near the cemetery, members say, but it has now been relocated across Holland Road.
There have been at least three church buildings. While the once rural church is now located on a bustling four-lane road, the cemetery site retains a bucolic atmosphere.
“This is the initial phase,” said Ron Frink, a deacon at the church, at which many contemporary members are descendants of founding families.
“It will take time to uncover these graves that are hidden behind trees,” Frink said, “and we want family members to come and see their loved ones’ graves.”
Volunteers are urged to learn about and attend future cleanups at the historic cemetery. Reach Griffin by email via tgriffin.pgbc@gmail.com or Frink via rfrink.pgbc@gmail.com for more information. Learn more about Piney Grove Baptist Church and its history online at the church website, pineygrovebaptistchurch.org.
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