Join Rusty, Oakland Cemetery’s Canine Protector, for a Historic Dedication on Saturday

Oakland Cemetery has become known for a handsome, strawberry-blond, very good boy named Rusty. 

Cemetery administrator Monica Newbury knows everyone loves a good dog tale. When she began including photos of Rusty on the cemetery’s Facebook page, interest in Rusty and this historic South Dallas resting place swelled. Over the past few years, that interest turned to community engagement, resulting in wonderful things happening here. Saturday, a milestone in the cemetery’s history will be reached with the unveiling of a Historic Texas Cemetery marker.

Oakland Cemetery opened in 1892 on a little over 48 acres. It has become the final resting place of more than 27,000 people, including six mayors and city leaders like George Bannerman Dealey, Major League Baseball player Oscar Dugey, and Annie Lawther, long believed to be the white-gowned ghost that still haunts the shores of White Rock Lake.

Newbury has family members buried in Oakland Cemetery, too. In 2019, when she learned that the cemetery had closed and locked its gates, she was saddened but not surprised by the news. For years before she and others got involved, there had been an ongoing lethargy in the governance of the cemetery and no real activity for some time.

In early 2020, a new Oakland Cemetery Lot Owners Association board was created with the help of City Council member Adam Bazaldua and Dallas civic leader Lynn McBee. Then when the world went into lockdown with a pandemic creating unwanted isolation, Newbury had an idea.

“I’ll go to the cemetery and clean our family graves,” she told CandysDirt.com. “Rusty showed up as soon as we did. He and five other dogs were on the grounds. They would try to scare people away and chase them to their cars. It took about two years, but they were all picked up and rehomed except for Rusty.”

Rusty was big, loud, and too clever to be captured. This was his home, and he was not leaving.

Newbury recruited volunteers by word of mouth and through her Friends of Oakland Cemetery’s Facebook page. With so many people longing to get out but needing to socially distance, this was certainly a heaven-sent opportunity. Tom White, one of the first volunteers who is frequently seen wielding his weed eater, is now the board’s treasurer. He has made it his mission to ensure that veterans who had no markers are now honored and remembered.

Oakland Cemetery is not just maintained. It has become a community space, a destination for programming, tours, and events. The board secured 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and has partnered with the Constellation of Living Memorials on the Oakland Cemetery Prairie Project. For a cemetery, it’s very much alive with activity.

“About four years ago, we asked for volunteers to help apply for a Historic Texas Cemetery marker,” Newbury said. Linda Finley and Barbara Ware took on the task of putting together the application. It took about a year and a half of painstaking research, and this Saturday, all that work pays off when the marker is unveiled in front of Rusty and his friends. 

“This is significant because it puts Oakland Cemetery on a map of historical markers in Texas,” Newbury said. “It will help bring awareness. Many people don’t know this large cemetery near Fair Park exists. It was also the first cemetery to allow our Hispanic community members to be buried. It’s a museum, a nature preserve, a historic site, and an outdoor art gallery.

“There is so much more to a cemetery than a final resting place for loved ones, and Rusty is such a big part of what we do here and is constantly by my side. He’s also a taskmaster. If we sit down to take a break, he barks at us as if to say, ‘Get back to work!'”

You’ll no doubt see Rusty at the unveiling and dedication of the Historic Texas Cemetery marker, but don’t think he’s going to come over and give you a big kiss because he’s not that kind of guy. He’s low-key and private but totally devoted to Newbury, White, and Armando Gonzales, the cemetery’s gatekeeper and landscape worker. Rusty knows this is his family, and Oakland is his home. 

The Oakland Cemetery Texas Historical Marker will be unveiled and dedicated at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 5, at 3900 Oakland Circle. You also don’t want to miss The 5th Annual Picnic and Fundraiser, which takes place on April 26 from 11 a.m to 3 p.m.