LOCATION

14 Spring Street, Big Stone Gap, VA

CONTACT

(276) 523-0115 ext 107

info@bigstonegap.org

RESOURCES

RULES AND REGULATIONS

Find a Grave Website

MONUMENTS & SERVICES

Holding Funeral Home

(276) 523-1470

Gilliam Funeral Home

(276) 523-7000

MAP

Joseph Garfield Long, Sr. Memorial Cemetery (formerly Oakview)

LOCATION

1201 3rd Ave East, Big Stone Gap, VA

CONTACT

(276) 523-0115 ext 107

info@bigstonegap.org

RESOURCES

RULES AND REGULATIONS

Find a Grave Website

MONUMENTS & SERVICES

Holding Funeral Home

(276) 523-1470

Gilliam Funeral Home

(276) 523-7000

Mr. Long’s Story by Pastor Sandra Jones:

Thanks to the Big Stone Gap Town Council for approving the name change of the former Oakview Cemetery to the Joseph Garfield Long, Sr. Memorial Cemetery.

I was always told as a child no matter your job, do it well, even if you have to dig a ditch, do a good job!

It was around 1953 when Joe Long Sr. was hired by the Town of Big Stone Gap to be the caretaker for the Black Cemetery Oak View. He retired around 1972. Everybody that knew Mr. Long, knew him as a hard-working no-nonsense type of a man. He accepted the position of caretaker for himself and his two sons, Butch and Quentin (without their consent) and a friend Henry. It didn’t matter if Butch or Quentin believed in ghost or other graveyard stories to keep them from working at the cemetery, when Joe Long spoke, even EF Hutton listened. According to Mr. Long’s son Butch, the town provided the land for the cemetery and the burial plots cost very little at that time and he thinks his dad received around $50 for opening and closing a grave – although he and Quentin……… well……didn’t get a penny. The Long family went in with the old-time push mower, pick and shovel, strong backs, a homemade sickle to clear the brush and high grass to prepare it for the burials.

Mr. Joseph Garfield Long, Sr. was born in Yellow Pine Alabama and his story for leaving Alabama mimics many others-for a better way of life and well – to say it nicely- enough is enough! There were three things that kept him going: his faith, his family and hard work. When his first wife died leaving him to raise four children, he wanted to make sure that his children and others received a good education. His four children were being schooled by a 17-year-old petite 4’11 young lady by the name of Bertha Leeper. Soon thereafter she became Mrs. Bertha Long, and they added 14 more children to the Long family, 5 died in infancy or young age – and 13 lived to adulthood.

Mr. Long was a coal miner, farmer, Deacon and one of the founding members of Macedonia Baptist Church /School in Appalachia, Virginia as he continued his quest to provide a place to educate the black children. Butch remembers that a local bank official by the name of Mr. Manus donated supplies as well for the church/school. When the Wise County School Board was looking for property to build Bland High School, Mr. Long just happened to own about 90% of some prime property in “Goose Hollow” (for those of you wondering where that is ….. It’s the section of town where the town hall is) that he sold to the board and the rest is history. Mr. Long lived a long and fruitful life dying at the age of 92.

While Mr. Long was working hard providing for his family, Ms. Bertha was not only a homemaker, she taught piano, played for years for the choirs at Macedonia Church in Appalachia and First Baptist Church in Big Stone. Ms. Bertha also saw a need to educate young children, so she opened a kindergarten class in her home (some of her students were: Nancy Giles, Debra Sanders, Brisco McCoo, Nita Hollinger, Joe Chapman and Martina Miller), she wrote and directed children’s plays, was an avid fisherman and planned the annual 8th of August bus trips to Chilhowee Park in Knoxville for families to have an outing.

Although Mr. Long ran a tight ship, his daughter Darlene was engaged and living in DC, and wanted to have her upcoming wedding in Big Stone Gap – the place she called home. She had a beautiful wedding and FYI – one of Darlene’s bridesmaids was Vivian Juanita Malone Jones (July 15, 1942 – October 13, 2005) who was one of the first two black students to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963, and in 1965 became the university’s first black graduate. She was made famous when George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, attempted to block her and James Hood from enrolling at the all-white university.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; Ecclesiastes 9:10