Originally published Saturday, December 28, 1996

By JON HAHN  
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

Cliff Edwards is in charge of a city operation with many of Edmonds' civic leaders and even former mayors under him.

And he plans to stay on top for a good long time yet . . . as the one-man office, sales, maintenance and digging staff at the tiny six-acre Edmonds Memorial Cemetery on 15th Street Southwest.

"It's a great job, if you don't count the days you have to cut grass in the rain or dig a grave in a snowstorm," said Edwards, who has been working in cemeteries for more than half of his 42 years.

George Brackett, the first mayor and founder of Edmonds, is buried just a stone's throw from Cliff's neat little office and storage shed on the cemetery grounds. And many of Edmonds' pioneer families and civic leaders also are buried here, in what was once an Odd Fellows cemetery.

"Back then, you could buy a whole plot -- eight graves -- for $1, if you were a member, or $10 if you weren't," said Edwards, who wasn't even a gleam in his grandfather's eye in 1891.

Nowadays, graves cost $500 each, and marker stones begin at about $200 and top out in the dearly departed neighborhood of $15,000. None of which makes a profit for the city-owned cemetery, but money from burials at least pays Edwards' salary and cemetery operation and upkeep expenses, including grass cutting, weeding, clean-up and watering.

And, of course, burials.

Many local residents and most folks who drive through town on State Route 104, are unaware of the park-like cemetery behind the QFC shopping center along 100th Avenue West, which most call 9th Avenue South (it's all one street, and the end of the road for about 50 souls each year.)

Residents who stroll through the park rarely stop to note the tersely designated lifetimes on markers. The oldest ones date back to the 1890s, when the cemetery was dedicated by Lodge No. 96, International Order of Odd Fellows. A number mark childhood deaths, common in times not so long ago, such as:

Archie
Son of R.E. and H.B.
McConaghy
Aged 16 months
1895

Pinwheels, little plastic critters and even stuffed teddy bears adorned other monuments for infants.

Before Memorial Day and Veterans Day, when local veterans organizations hold ceremonies at the cemetery, Edwards sets out little white crosses and U.S. flags on each of several hundred veterans' graves. "It used to take two people two days," he said. "But I put it all on a tape, and now I just walk through the rows and sections and listen to the recorded sites and place the crosses and flags. I can do it myself in a day."

He didn't plan on this career right out of his Longview high school, Edwards explained. "I was checking out a job listing at the state unemployment listing, and it said 'Longview Memorial Park' and I thought, 'Oh swell, a park job!' And then as I drove farther and farther out, I thought maybe it was in a park department shop, and then I got there and saw it was a cemetery.

"I sat outside for awhile and debated with myself, and then went inside. They said it was just cutting grass. But a week later, their backhoe operator quit and because I had experience operating one, they made me their grave digger, and I've been doing it ever since."

He has outlived all those silly comments about "dead-end jobs" and learned to like the work . . . with the exception of occasionally having to disinter a body for transfer to another grave site or another cemetery.

Vandalism that plagues other cemeteries is negligible at Edmonds Memorial, he said, "although there was one incident several years ago, in which 22 stones were pushed over the night after Halloween."

Burials themselves aren't a problem, although, Edwards said, "I always cross my fingers when I start digging because the old records don't always exactly locate where someone's already been buried." And the subsoil is just unstable enough to prevent mourners from getting close to the casket one last time.

Actual grave digging usually is done the morning of the graveside services and burials, which requires Edwards to drive the backhoe up from the Edmonds Parks Department garage. But his usual commute to work is less than five minutes, and he can even go home for lunch.

One final note of grave concern: Edwards has no intention of digging his own grave, or even being buried here. "My Dad and I already have that worked out. We're going to be cremated and have our ashes scattered over our favorite fishing hole on the Columbia River."