Cemetery Visitors Boo at Graves’ Halloween Theme

The Adkins family graves had the Halloween touch: orange bows, a smiling bat puppet, a green plastic monster, even a dangling toy skeleton.

But after complaints from four visitors to Greenlawn Memorial Park, cemetery superintendent Tom Houston asked relatives to remove them.

All that’s left is a battery-powered, lighted pumpkin.

The cemetery allows traditional ornaments at its 40,000 grave sites, including wreaths, flowers and potted plants.

But Donna Gay, whose mother, Magalene Adkins, and brother, Rickey Adkins, died last year and whose father, Elmer Adkins, died in August, said she and other family members have brought in plastic Santas, a cradle with a baby and other decorations over the seasons.

“You don’t want to sit here and have nothing to look at,” said Gay, tears sliding down her cheeks. “When we decorate, we feel we’ve done something for them. They were very important to us.”