Brownsville Cemetery Gets New Columns: Sign Found After Two Decades of Storage

Steve Renick works on new brick pillars at Brownsville Cemetery.

Phyllis W. Miller, story and photos:
In the early 2000s, construction began on the Veterans Memorial Highway in Edmonson County in order to straighten the crooked Highway 259. The road in Brownsville was widened to include a much needed turning lane. One of the effects of widening the road was that the brick sign for the Brownsville Missionary Baptist Cemetery had to be removed on the southern side of Brownsville.

Initially, the two brick pillars and granite signs at the cemetery entrance were missed but as the years passed and memory faded they became forgotten, even to those who had family buried in the cemetery. Recently, a few individuals began investigating and found the original granite signs that had been stored in the Brownsville City Building for the past two decades. 

Granite sign found in storage after two decades.

Steve Renick works on new brick pillars at Brownsville Cemetery.

This week, efforts were made to return the signs to the cemetery. Many have worked together to make this possible, but a special “thank you” goes to masonry worker Steve Renick who came out of retirement to construct the two pillars, lay brick, and set the granite signs back in place. ​