Save Austin's Cemeteries

                       P O Box 16411, Austin, Texas 78761

Contact

Save Austin's Cemeteries
P O Box 16411
Austin, Texas 78761

(512) 917-1666

Save Austin's Cemeteries Group E-Mail

Meeting Location:
Oakwood Cemetery, Chapel Building
1601 Navasota St, Austin, TX

Additional Resources

Leslie Wolfenden President & Preservation Officer

Leslie became a cemetery crusader during graduate school while doing research on Oakwood Cemetery for a paper. She learned more about Austin and Texas while in the cemetery than she did in her history classes. Leslie has degrees in Historic Preservation (MS), Architecture (BS), and Interior Design (AA). Her Master’s thesis focused on 16 of Austin’s historic cemeteries and their state of preservation. As an architectural historian, Leslie's work takes her all over Texas doing survey work and research on Texas history.

Kay Boyd Vice President & Historian

Kay Boyd has been a member of Save Austin's Cemeteries for several years. She is keenly interested in the preservation and care of Austin cemeteries. Her great grandparents were Swedish immigrants who came to Austin in 1870 and are buried in Oakwood Cemetery. She also has family buried in the Oakwood Annex and Austin Memorial Park. Her husband has grandparents and great grandparents buried in old Oakwood as well as Austin Memorial Park. Kay is also a member of the Austin Genealogical Society and the Caldwell County Genealogical and Historical Society. She works with the Travis County cemetery project of AGS. She was instrumental in beginning the Travis County Pioneer program. Besides cemeteries and genealogy, she is very interested in Travis County history concentrating on the Manor area. Currently she is a volunteer at the Austin History Center and the Manor Library.

Susan Lassell Secretary

Susan has been a member of SAC since 2007, and was promoted from tour volunteer to Secretary in 2009. Susan has long been fascinated by the role that cemeteries play in communities. So much changes over the decades and centuries, and yet the location of the old cemeteries is (usually!) constant. And within these old cemeteries, in the landscape and on the headstones and markers, each generation can find the story of the people and events that shaped their community. When she isn’t volunteering with SAC, Susan works in Austin as a historic preservation planning consultant. She also serves on the board of directors for Preservation Texas, the state-wide non-profit advocate for preserving the historic resources of Texas. In both of these roles, Susan’s goal is to encourage agencies and communities to integrate their historic resources into their plans for the future.

Dale Flatt Treasurer

Dale is a 23 year veteran of the Austin Fire Department. In 2002, after taking photographs of old headstones with his new Nikon 35 mm camera, he wondered what to do with all the photos. Contacting the Austin History Center, he learned about cemetery documentation and preservation, beginning his hobby of cemetery preservation. Over the past several years, he has worked as a volunteer with the Texas Historical Commission and the Austin History Center on better documenting Travis County cemeteries. In 2004, Dale with other cemetery preservationists saw the need to create a partnership with the City of Austin to better document and to improve conditions at Oakwood Cemetery. Save Austin's Cemeteries was founded to achieve this goal. Dale is a member/officer of Onion Creek Masonic lodge # 220 in South Austin, and also sits on the Board of Directors of the Austin History Center Association. He is married to his high school sweetheart Kathleen. They have one daughter who attends Austin Community College.

Danny Camacho Historian

Danny Camacho is a retired food services worker and history buff, who dedicates many hours to sifting through microfilm of historical newspapers and sexton ledgers in order to piece together information for SAC's walking tours and other events. Danny is particularly interested in the pre-1900 era as it reveals intriguing details about how life was lived back then and why. Danny is also a dedicated volunteer at the Austin History Center.