PELHAM — For nearly 60 years, day-to-day care for a cemetery on North Valley Road, as well as digging of graves there and maintenance at other town cemeteries, has been done by Cleon “Buzzy” Booth.
Now 88, the lifelong resident, known to almost all in Pelham and surrounding towns as the one to call on if their wells aren’t functioning properly, is lending his family name to the burial grounds on North Valley, an honor recently finalized when a large stone was brought to the site and inscribed with “Booth Cemetery.”
The renaming of the burial grounds came at the urging of the Cemetery Commission, which assisted the Select Board in issuing a proclamation in June 2024 that cited Booth’s “extraordinary service” in maintaining the lawns, trimming around stones and removing leaves and debris, and getting graves dug with another Pelham native, Norman Page.
Page, who has also helped Booth with his Mountain Springs Pumps & Service business, said the honor is appropriate, recalling that he was a teenager when Booth took over the Cemetery Commission from his grandfather.
“He’s done everything,” Page said. “He’s worked for the Highway Department, he’s been a dog officer, he’s been a police officer.”
“He’s still helping people out,” Page said. “He’s still always getting out to mow and trim around the stones.”
In the citation, town officials note Booth also has “communicated with families regarding plot acquisitions, acted as the face of the town with love and concern for its citizens in their times of greatest sorrow, and generally been the ‘go-to’ person regarding cemeteries for at least 58 years, serving out of love for the job and its importance.”
Booth has also set and reset stones, removed trees at the request of town officials, placed American flags at veterans’ graves, kept the burial records and, with Page, created a map of the North Valley Cemetery.
Scott Barton, who chairs the town’s Cemetery Commission, said Booth hitting the half-century mark several years ago and then continuing his work made it a good time to recognize him.
“We decided it would be a nice way to honor him by having the cemetery named after him,” said Barton, noting that Booth is not generally interested in publicity.
Many of the town’s other cemeteries already bear the names of families, including the Arnold, Cook-Johnson, Keyes-Stevens, Knights Corner and Ruben Allen.
Once the citation was done, the next step was acquiring a large stone from Pelham resident Charles Weeber and then the Highway Department moved it into place, with Dorsey Memorials putting the “Booth Cemetery” inscription on it.
Heide Zajonc, a former Pelham resident, said that Boooth does “a lot at all the cemeteries,” including getting the American flags out in one old cemetery deep in the Cadwell Forest, honoring Civil War veterans buried there.
“Buzzy sees to it that flags are always posted on all those who fought back then,” Zajonc said.
She also calls him a good-hearted and grand man. “He cares deeply about all of those things,” Zajonc said.
He taught her how mushroom hunt at Mount Lincoln and was always ready to help within three minutes, unless he was already off helping someone else.
“His days start early and end late going here and there,” Zajonc said.
