Lot Purchase

How to Purchase a Gravesite at Wills Cemetery

The Cemetery has established the cost per gravesite, effective January 1, 2026, to be $750. In addition, effective March, 2020, a “marking “ fee of $100 will be charged to the funeral home after receiving notification a pending funeral service and burial. This “marking” fee will reimburse the Association for work related to the official locating of the gravesite for burial. The “marking” fee will also pay the Cemetery for the official locating of the monument or gravestone. No monument is to be installed without the Cemetery being notified and officially marking the exact location of the monument. A gravesite measures 4 feet wide by 10 feet deep. Most rows in the Wills Cemetery measure 15 feet from front of a monument to the front of the monument in the next row. That means that 5 feet in front of the monument serves as a walkway. Therefore, when walking the Wills Cemetery, people are not walking on a grave if they walk within 5 feet from the front of the monuments. Gravestones or monuments are to be placed on the west end of the gravesite. For a single gravesite, the monument base can be no larger than 42 inches wide which leaves 3 inches on each side of the monument to the next gravesite. The base of a monument straddling two gravesites cannot be larger can 90 inches and cannot be placed closer than 3 inches from the next gravesite.

Most of the Wills Cemetery is laid out in multiples of six gravesites per lot, however, some lots contain three or nine gravesites.  A 2-foot wide alley separates one lot from another and a five-foot walkway separates each row in the cemetery which allows foot traffic without encroaching on a gravesite.  With this much-unused space, the cemetery does not look overcrowded which adds to the tranquil, country feel of the Wills Cemetery.

Wills Cemetery policies state that a gravesite may contain one vault burial and one inurnment or no more than two inurnments per gravesite.  Currently, the Wills Cemetery has approximately 700 gravesites available for purchase in the existing platted cemetery.

When looking at the aerial view of the cemetery divided into sections, there are gravesites available to be purchased in Sections D, G, H, I, J & M, with the most gravesites available in Sections G, I, J & M.

If interested in purchasing a gravesite or multiple gravesites, please contact Larry Dobson, at 816-331-2888 or email at lldobson@aol.com.  Larry can make arrangements to meet at the cemetery to help people select a gravesite.