Discover!
Find visitor and family resources, learn more about the Evergreen Cemetery project, discover biographies, and get to know the Executive Planning and Review Team leading the restoration planning process.
Read Evergreen Cemetery Biographies
We will continue to add biographies as they are completed.
Get to know the Executive Planning and Review Team for Historic Evergreen Cemetery
Purpose
The Historic Evergreen Cemetery Executive Planning and Review Team (ExPRT) advises the Enrichmond Foundation in planning, reviewing, and prioritizing initiatives relating to the restoration of Historic Evergreen Cemetery, located in the City of Richmond, Virginia. The Team’s discussions, decisions, and recommendations inform the strategic priorities and tactical implementation of Evergreen’s multi-year restoration process.
Mission
To reveal and celebrate African American cultural and spiritual experiences, legacies, and places through public programming, education, and preservation.
For more information
ExPRT Meeting Minutes and a full description of the team are available to the public on the Evergreen Library page.
Advisory Team Members (June 2018–January 2020):
- Mr. Franklin Archer
- Ms. Viola Baskerville
- Ms. Janine Bell
- Mr. Melvin Brinkley
- Ms. Marilyn Campbell, Secretary
- Ms. Veronica Davis
- Mr. Alan Delbridge
- Ms. Kathleen Harrell
- Rev. Marilyn Heckstall
- Mr. J. Maurice Hopkins
- Ms. Loucressa James
- Mr. Richard Lambert
- Ms. Mary Lauderdale, Assistant Secretary
- Ms. Janith Libron
- Dr. Johnny Mickens III
- Mr. John Mitchell
- Ms. Shuron Mitchell
- Ms. Chryshunda Moore
- Ms. Nadia Orton
- Ms. Ajena Rogers
- Mr. John Shuck
- Mr. Alexander Smith
- Rev. H. Creed Taylor, Jr.
- Mr. Richard Waller, Jr.
Mr. Franklin Archer
Bio coming soon
Ms. Viola Baskerville
Viola Osborne Baskerville, a Richmond native and retired public elected official, is the descendant of several persons resting at Historic Evergreen Cemetery. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, the Virginia agency which holds a conservation easement on the Cemetery. A lifelong amateur genealogist, she is also a member of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Greater Richmond. In addition, she serves on the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission.
Ms. Janine Bell
The founder and president of Elegba Folklore Society, Inc., Janine Bell is an artist, a producer, an arts administrator and a folklorist/cultural historian. From its downtown Richmond, Virginia cultural center, the Society makes an educational, social, economic and spiritual impact. She is glad to contribute this expertise as an ExPRT. Ms. Bell holds a degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a recipient several awards, including UNC’s Harvey E. Beech Outstanding Alumna Award and the Teresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts.
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Ms. Marilyn Campbell, Secretary
Marilyn Campbell has served as secretary with the Historic Evergreen Cemetery ExPRT team since June, 2018. She represents the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS), Greater Richmond, Virginia Chapter in the Richmond community. She has provided four years of volunteer service as president and currently serves on the AAHGS national board in the position of Special Project Director. The mission focus is to preserve African-ancestral history and assist in the discovery of genealogical research programs and projects.
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Mr. Alan Delbridge
As Nonprofit Program Manager at the Community Foundation, Alan helps nonprofits build their volunteer capacity and further their missions in serving the Greater Richmond region. He connects organizations with HandsOn Connect, the largest volunteer hub in our region, and provides ongoing training and resources to volunteer managers and organizations – including the Volunteer Management Training Series, Corporate Bootcamp, HandsOn posting orientations, and Service Enterprise certifications. Alan is most passionate about collaborating with the great nonprofit volunteer professionals in the region who are saving the world!
Ms. Kathleen Harrell
Kathleen Harrell is a first grade teacher in Henrico County and a volunteer coordinator at Woodland Cemetery. She is a graduate of Mary Washington College, with a degree in Psychology. She also holds a master’s degree in Adult Education from The George Washington University and a master’s degree in Teaching from Mary Baldwin College. She is a native of Lexington, Virginia and has lived in the Richmond area since 1996. She has been volunteering weekly at Woodland Cemetery since December 2018, and she is currently working on a project to create a digital, searchable plot map of the estimated 30,000 burials in the cemetery.
Mr. J. Maurice Hopkins
Mr. Hopkins is a retired businessman with over 45 years of wholesale/retail merchandising experience. He was instrumentally involved with the erection of the Maggie L. Walker Statue Plaza in downtown Richmond, an involved advocate for the Boulevard name change to Arthur Ashe, Jr. and has continued to be engaged with the Lumpkin's Jail Project in Shockoe Bottom and the Confederate Statues on Monument Avenue here in our Capital City.
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Ms. Mary Lauderdale, Assistant Secretary
Mary Lauderdale moved to Richmond, VA from Philadelphia, PA in 1995. She is currently the Visitor Services Manager at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia. Mary is a founding member of Sisters of the Yam, an African American Quilters’ Guild, which has been meeting at the museum since the guild’s formation in 2001. Mary says that Virginia’s Black History is America’s history, and has opened up a wider view of history and culture to learn and interpret.
Ms. Janith Libron
Bio coming soon
Mr. John Mitchell
Bio coming soon
Ms. Nadia Orton
Nadia K. Orton is a professional genealogist and family historian. She is a graduate of Duke University, with a double major in Political Science and African/African American Studies, and a Certificate in Markets and Management Science. She has researched her paternal family roots to 1610 in Tidewater, Virginia and maternal roots to 1770 in North Carolina. She has extensive family history in Richmond. She has ancestors buried in Oakwood and Evergreen cemeteries, and since 2013, has researched over 14,000 interments in Evergreen Cemetery. She maintains a blog, Sacred Ground, Sacred History.
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Ms. Ajena Rogers
Ajena Rogers is a supervisory park ranger and manager of the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site in Richmond.
Mr. John Shuck
I am an Iowa farm boy who got into computers and had a 33 year employment with SunTrust in IT. I retired 9 years ago. I have been doing genealogy all my adult life and when digital cameras came out, I started photographing gravestones for Find A Grave which is how I eventually came across Evergreen and East End Cemeteries. Besides volunteering at several overgrown cemeteries around the Richmond area, I am interested in gardening and traveling. My wife and I have a goal of visiting as many of the national park sites as we can. So far we have been to about 75% of the 400+ sites.
Mr. Alexander Smith
Alexander "Al" Smith, Jr. is a native of Westmoreland County which is a part of the Northern Neck of Virginia. Upon graduation from A. T. Johnson High School in 1965 Al entered the United States Army and was on active duty for three years. Upon being honorably discharged in 1969 Al came to Richmond, Virginia and attended Virginia Union University on the GI Bill. Upon graduation from Virginia Union Al was employed by VEPCO which is now known as Dominion Energy. Al also served eight years in the Virginia National Guard while employed with Dominion. Al had a rewarding career with Dominion and retired in 2010 with 37 years of service.
Rev. H. Creed Taylor
Bio coming soon
Additional ExPRT member bios coming soon!