Department of Veterans’ Services Cabinet Secretary Jamison Herrera to participate in rededication ceremony

The New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services (DVS) will take part in today a rededication ceremony of the Historic Fairview Cemetery in Albuquerque, at 700 Yale Boulevard SE

DVS Cabinet Secretary Jamison Herrera will be joining members of the Historic Fairview Cemetery management board and Bernalillo County officials at a 10:30 a.m. ceremony commemorating the completion of the restoration of veterans’ gravesites.

The cemetery opened in 1881 as the city’s first cemetery before eventually closing in the early 2000s and falling into a severe state of disrepair. Of the estimated 12,000 citizens believed to be buried there, approximately 500 are believed to be veterans–including some who served as far back as our nation’s Civil War.

Two years ago, DVS received funding from Bernalillo County to provide oversight of the restoration of the cemetery’s two veterans’ sections. Headstones were removed, cleaned, raised, and realigned to national and state veterans’ cemetery standards.