For 35 years, Gilbert Gonzales walked among the dead - first with a pick and shovel digging graves at the county's Lompoc Evergreen Cemetery, then as cemetery superintendent, overseeing burials.

But even during late nights when the wind whistled and cried in the eucalyptus trees while he studied the cemetery records, it wasn't the dead who concerned him as much as it was the living.

Often, the people grieving over loved ones were his friends and neighbors and he shared their grief.

"I was born and raised in Lompoc. When Lompoc was small, everybody seemed to know everybody by sight or by name," said Gonzales, 69, who retired in 2001. "It made it hard to select a gravesite or to make arrangements for the burial. Everybody accepts death in a different manner. Everybody has a different way of receiving their grief."

Gonzales began in 1965 as a part-time caretaker, mowing the grass, trimming trees, preparing burial sites and digging graves, sometimes using a jackhammer on the hard, dry ground.

In June 1966, he became a full-time caretaker.

"One of the hardest things for me was to walk on a gravesite, but when you are mowing you have to walk on them," he said. "We were brought up never to disrespect or do anything in the cemetery. My parents used to tell us you would be punished, but when you are working here, you have no choice."

Advertisement

Gonzales was appointed superintendent in 1970 after the death of his boss, Charles Howerton. It was a difficult transition.

"I had to start from scratch," he said. "Our superintendent never really took us in there to tell us what the procedures were."

Gonzales didn't let that situation repeat itself. When longtime caretaker Mark Powers hurt his back on the job, Gonzales brought him into the office and taught him the operation. When Gonzales retired three years later, Powers took over.

Cemeteries are a storehouse of history and Gonzales learned about past residents, such as an early merchant named Orson Peck, 1812-1903, who is buried along with each of his five wives, all in a row - Lydia, who died in 1875; Racheal, 1881; Sarah, 1886; Anne, 1897; and Hannah, 1901. Lydia Peck was the first person buried in Evergreen. Her grave was moved there from an earlier graveyard near the river, not far from the old Grefco plant.

Kitty-cornered from Peck's grave is a small marker with a little angel on it. It is the grave of Mary Sargent and it is inscribed "Murdered by Indians."

Early Chinese residents also are represented in the cemetery. Across from Peck is the grave of Gin Chow, who was known as the "Prophet" after publishing almanacs in the 1930s that supposedly accurately predicted some future events in Lompoc.

"He predicted his own time of death, or year of death," Gonzales said. "All of this is hearsay."

One of the cemetery's worst moments came in the late 1960s when vandals knocked over about 125 grave markers and monuments. In the 1970s, the cemetery began laying grave markers flat.

"Everyone blamed it on kids. Everybody was angry," Gonzales said. "We had to hire some extra help to set them back up.''

The cemetery was finally fenced, but not because of vandals - deer began eating flowers off the graves. "People would come up to the office upset and blame the (caretakers) who mowed for cutting the flowers.''

Spurred largely by the growing importance of Vandenberg Air Force Base, the city more than doubled in population during the three and a half decades that Gonzales worked at Evergreen, and that growth was reflected in the cemetery. By the time Gonzales retired on June 1, 2001, it had grown from about 16 acres to 26 acres.

About 10,000 people are buried there now, among them a couple named Toribio and Amanda who started a restaurant called the Serape in 1948. They are Gonzales' parents.

* Staff Writer Bo Poertner can be reached at 736-2313, Ext. 104, or by e-mail at bpoertner@lompocrecord.com

Jan. 5, 2004