Kearney Missouri, a town of only 10,000 boasts three nice, old cemeteries.
The notorious outlaw Jessie James is buried (reburied and DNA verified) in Mt. Olivet Cemetery. If you’re into that kind of tombstone tourism, definitely check it out. Kearney’s not shy about claiming its fallen son. Visit his family farm nearby. There’s a Jesse James festival every summer and a gorgeous park in town named after him.
Mount Olivet, Kearney, Missouri
A few blocks from Mt. Olivet is, Fairview Cemetery.
Nobody famous or infamous buried here as far as I could tell. It’s still in town, but off the main drag. Mature trees and pastures border three sides. Nice spot.
Before you head out of town, stop for a great cuppa here at Mojo’s.
This cemetery is one of my favorites and close to home in Kearney, Missouri.
Muddy Forks Cemetery my favorite discovery near Kearney, is just 1.7 miles north of town on Hwy 33.
I just love the name! There aren’t any forks in the road here, muddy or otherwise, so I can’t tell you how it came to be called that.
It’s up on a hill, bordered on all sides by wire fences and pasture land, a great, quiet place
to sit under a shady tree and watch the world go by. There are over 400 people buried here, one famous resident, Clellend Miller, was a member of the James gang. Otherwise it’s just regular folks.
I often wonder when I find these little cemeteries out in the middle of nowhere, who gets buried there nowadays. It’s a tiny place. They’d have to be kind of selective about newcomers or they’d over-run the pasture in no time.
I Dig Graves! 
Muddyfork – love that name too!
[…] Muddy Forks Cemetery, Kearney, Missouri […]
Love your article and pictures.
Fairview Cemetery has some relatives of notorious criminals: Jesse James’ daughter, Mary James Barr; Frank and Jesse’s sister, Fannie Quantrill Samuels Hall; Frank James’ son Robert James.
Fairview Cemetery in Kearney, Missouri does have some notable persons making positive contributions to society:
Henry C. “Ted” Waring, catcher in the minor leagues from 1907 to 1917. He managed the 1921 Independence Producers team that went 103-38.
Loma Hash, Distinguished Service Cross recipient for actions in World War II
http://kearneymo.us/Kearney-Cemetery-Lookup.asp#lookup
Thanks for the information! It’s nice that there are at least a few people whose stories are still known in those cemeteries. Or known by the general public anyway. I love markers that have a poem or a picture, a phrase, that tells me something personal about the one being remembered. Even celebrity graves can be very nondescript. I didn’t notice the folks you mentioned. Thanks for pointing them out, and for following my blog!
The Muddy Fork cemetery is so named because of the Muddy Fork creek just to the East.
Thanks, David. I always wondered about that. I imagined a fork in a paved-over dirt road that used to get muddy when it rained. I hadn’t thought of a forked creek. I used this beautiful, old cemetery as one of the settings in my book. I changed the name to Muddy Bend, but Muddy Fork was what I had in mind as I wrote. Thanks for the comment.