Councilman pushes ban on colorful tombs
Associated Press
HOUMA, La.
It isn’t the statues, the stained glass or even the pillows on the graves at Southdown Cemetery that bother Terrebonne Councilman Alvin Tillman — it’s the colors on the tombs.
He does not like the red one, the yellow one, the soft dove gray or any of the shades of blue that about a dozen of the tombs have been painted. And he says other people have complained about it, too.
“We want to stop this before it gets out of hand,” Tillman said. “Before you know it, you’ll go out there and the cemetery will look like Mardi Gras.”
Tillman wants it to be illegal to paint a tomb anything but white.
He has proposed a law restricting the color a tomb can be painted. The law also would require those who already have painted their tombs to repaint them white.
The Development and Planning Committee unanimously approved sending the proposal to the full council. A public hearing on it will take place Jan. 11.
If it passes, violators could be charged with a misdemeanor, said Patrick Gordon, director of Development and Planning for the parish.
“We don’t want to see it get out of hand,” Gordon said. “I mean, what if someone wanted to paint their tomb LSU colors? I don’t think purple and gold would be appropriate there.”
The law would apply only to the three public cemeteries in Terrebonne Parish.
Angie Green, executive director of the New Orleans organization Save Our Cemeteries, which is dedicated to restoring and preserving Louisiana’s unique cemeteries, urged the council not to prevent the painting.