Business requires delicate touch

Perhaps you have loved ones buried in another state or even close to home and you can’t take care of the gravesite. Or you recently purchased land and found an old burial plot on it and don’t know how to restore it. If so, the person to contact is Joe Thornburg, owner of Heartland Grave Groomers.

Heartland Grave Groomers is a franchise. The parent company, Grave Groomers, was established in 1999 in Minneapolis, Minn. President and founder John Peterson said the demand for services was so great from all over the United States that the company offered franchises.

“I found this business on eBay,” said Thornburg. “I wasn’t really looking; it just seemed like a good opportunity.”

In 2005, Thornburg opened Roses & Such Distribution, a floral company in Blue Springs and in 2006, he opened Grave Groomers.

“Both companies complement each other and I saw a chance to expand,” he said.

Roses & Such Distribution provides funeral and holiday grave wreaths, ground blankets, funeral arrangements, as well as floral designs for weddings. Grave Groomers provides stone cleaning, polishing, stone leveling and full-site reconstruction. The company also provides flower planting, watering, new sod, and site landscaping.

“The parent company came to Kansas City and held a training seminar on cleaning and repairing tombstones, which was very beneficial for startup as I didn’t really have training in this area,” he said.

Thornburg said he maintains and services cemeteries throughout Jackson County as well as the cemetery at the First United Methodist Church in his hometown of Wellington. He has restored more than 150 tombstones. Thornburg said cost for services range from $60 for cleaning mold, mildew, and organic matter to thousands of dollars for cleaning mausoleums.

“A lot of the old tombstones are made out of sandstone and have to be carefully repaired, because they crumble and break apart.” he said. “Many of this type of tombstone can be found at the Union Cemetery, Walnut Street, in Kansas City. Many date back to 1850s. Most of today’s grave markers are made out of marble and granite, although, we have cleaned military stones made out of brass.”

One of the oldest tombstones he cleaned was in Oak Grove. A family purchased some property and found a family cemetery dating back to 1820 on it.

“That was very rewarding to see the stones bright and clean when we left,” he said.

He’s glad to report that he doesn’t find a lot of graffiti in cemeteries, although he has cleaned some of it up. In the long run, cremation will probably put him out of business, but he isn’t worried because there are enough tombstones around.

Heartland Grave Groomers employ one full-time employee and one part-time employee. Roses and Such employ three full-time employees. The companies are members of The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Blue Springs Chamber of Commerce and the Union Hill Historical Society.