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VDOT relocates unmarked graves found near interstate roadwork

Eleven graves were moved to another location on the same plot of land and were given new headstones.

NORFOLK, Va. — The Virginia Department of Transportation has finished relocating graves from a cemetery that was near construction on the I-64/I-264 Interchange.

Nearly half of the two dozen graves had to be moved to allow a gravel access road that needed to be built for future inspections of that section of the interchange.

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The cemetery is on the east side of Kempsville Road, just south of the I-264 overpass. It is not affiliated with any nearby church and is not on the National Register of Historic Places.

Funeral home R.W. Baker & Company relocated 11 graves to another section of the cemetery on the same plot of land and provided a granite headstone to each previously unmarked grave.

Credit: VDOT
Six new markers after their placement on relocated graves in a small cemetery near the I-64/I-264 Interchange Improvements Project on Kempsville Road in Norfolk.

Most of the graves in the cemetery did not previously have a headstone, but four graves were marked. Historical records indicate this is the location of a small family cemetery. 

The oldest marked grave belongs to Wilford K. Hawk (May 22, 1868 - June 14, 1935) and the most recent is Love Riggs Masters (September 27, 1889 - November 2, 1956).

To date, no living relatives of the people buried in the cemetery have been found.

PHOTOS: Unmarked graves examined near Interstate roadwork

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