Earlier this summer 2021, on Friday morning June 25, I spearheaded a visit to the historic Woodland Cemetery in Compton, California with a contigent of members from the Southern California Tour Guide Association. Woodlawn is reputedly the oldest surviving cemetery in Los Angeles County. We had the pleasure of meeting Celestina Bishop (seen holding the clipboard in the above photo montage), the founder of the new non-profit organization ONE SECTION AT A TIME who on Mother’s Day 2020 adopted this important site with the goal to save and help restore the cemetery to a more respectable condition. Woodlawn had literally become abandoned in recent years after a number of highly publicized mismanagement scandals from former operators, then became overgrown by weeds and debris.

Celestina considers the cemetery home and started coming there with her grandmother when she was only two years old, sometimes even sleeping on the cemetery grounds against the headstones of her mother and three sisters. In 1977, she was the sole survivor of a bloodbath murder scene on a night of terror in Los Angeles. In recent years after the cemetery had been locked up by county officials, she was no longer able to visit with her deceased, beloved family members and that is what prompted her to take action, get involved and allow the site to provide more proper respect and atmosphere to all those buried there and for their surviving relatives. It is also the resting place for deceased members of many prominent, early Southern California families such as the Dominguez, Bixby and Watson families, as well as 18 Civil War veterans. When the summer temperatures cool down, a group of our members intends to return the the cemetery and volunteer for one of its monthly clean up days. One of the tour guide association’s goals is to help draw attention and provide volunteer support to underserved, but deserving community organizations.