Cleaning up a local landmark ... dozens turn out to pull weeds, mow and tidy up Lemon Bay Cemetery

BY MARCY SHORTUSE - Cemeteries mean different things to different people. For some it is a dreary place, for some they are downright creepy. For others, though, they are places of rest and peace, a place to honor and respect family members and friends who have passed.

Lemon Bay Cemetery, also known as the “humpback cemetery,” houses some of the most unique graves in the area. Names like Goff, Joiner and Keaser grace the marble memorials, names that made Englewood what it is today. Many from Boca Grande are buried there as well. Well-loved and cared for at one time, life got in the way for the family members and friends of the dead, and the graves fell into disrepair.View More images >>

In a mysterious twist, no one is quite sure where the original idea for this clean-up came from.

Carroll Swayze, a local artist who lives in Englewood, said she is part of a group called “Remember When in Englewood.” An elderly lady in the group said she had gone to visit the cemetery and found her loved one’s grave overgrown. She was too old, she admitted, to tidy it up herself. People came forward, volunteering to help. They saw the sad state of the graves there and realized something needed to be done.

Not long after Carroll posted the clean-up date and time on her Facebook page, news spread like wildfire.

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