Fran’s retired, but she doesn’t know it! That’s one way to describe Franida Maudsley, former director of the Social Service Payment System (SSPS) for the State of Washington. She went from working long, hard work weeks in her job to working long, hard volunteer weeks for the various non-profit causes and organizations she assists.
Her most recent accomplishment has exceeded a nice round number of 1,000. She organized a team of 43 to clean all the veteran gravestones at the Masonic Memorial Park in Tumwater. It took two years, from May 2021-July 1, 2023, and the gravestones totaled 1,233.
They did it to honor the veterans and their memory. The people on her team are members of the Sacajawea Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), friends, family, and also members of a partner organization, Sons of the American Revolution.
Her husband, Lew Maudsley, is part of the team and president of the local George Rogers Clark Chapter, SAR. “I’m also, known as a HODAR,” he quips, which means Husband of DAR. This ambitious project will be considered for national recognition by the DAR. Look at this Sacajawea Marker Blog to see before and after photos.
Established in 1852, the Masonic Memorial Park, 455 North St SE in Tumwater, Washington has 15,886 graves and is one of the oldest cemeteries in the state. With its Western Washington locale, it is prolific with moss and lichen. Although well maintained, the cemetery contained hundreds of hard-to-read grave markers. Members believe that the graves of veterans deserve to be seen and remembered.
Veteran/soldiers' graves dated from 1855 -2020 and included the Civil War, Spanish-American War WWI, Korea, WWII, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Persian Gulf, and Desert Storm. They were composed of granite, marble, sandstone, and limestone, plus bronze plaques.
As project initiator and manager, Franida obtained permission to carry out the project from the Masonic Memorial Park management, working with General Manager Terry Harper and Office Manager Lindsay Andersen.
Franida also partnered with Historical Preservationist Mick Hersey to train the team in proper metal and stone grave marker cleaning techniques. Hersey, a retired Navy veteran and member of the Sons of the American Revolution, is well-known throughout the Northwest for his expertise in the preservation of cemetery artifacts. The Bremerton couple, Mick and Fely Hersey volunteered their time to teach preservation skills to the entire team.
The volunteers ranged from age 6 to mid-80s. Fitness levels ran the gamut, from obviously very fit to those who used a walker or cane. At least one who couldn’t get down on the ground brought a lawn chair to work from. Some who couldn’t physically work on the markers helped by taking photos, documenting the work, completing FindAGrave data entry, and even helping the cemetery update its documentation.
Franida appreciates all team members’ efforts, whether they helped at one or a multitude of work parties. Team member Shannon Wells, a full-time employee at State Farm, took a lion’s share of the workload, showing up on Saturdays, her day off, for scheduled work parties with others, and by herself when nothing was scheduled. She also helped at some of the Wednesday work parties, sponsored by her employer, as a State Farm Good Neighbor volunteer.
Supplies cost around $3,000 with over 60 days of cleaning over three summers, with from one to seven cleaners on various days. In addition, donations of buckets and other supplies were received from the Bremerton Home Depot and Lowes. As in medicine, do no harm is the top recommendation for cleaning. D/2 (available online) and Orvus are recommended and were used exclusively on the stone markers for this and all projects that Mr. Hersey consults on. Protocols come from Arlington Cemetery, the National Park Service, the Veterans’ Administration, and other professional historic preservation sites.
Shirley Stirling, of Lacey, writes about good things people in Thurston County are doing. If you’d like to nominate someone to be profiled, contact her at shirley@theJOLTnews.com or comment below.
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Thank you, Shirley, for this write-up of our major project. There are so many cemeteries out there in both Thurston & Lewis Counties that need this type of work.
Friday, August 4, 2023 Report this
A grand article! It covers Mrs. Maudsley and the cleaning team, tells us about the cemetery, gives details of how and with what the graves are cleaned giving reassurance that the finest methods and materials are used professionally! All this is written so engagingly that I was sorry to see the article end!
Friday, August 4, 2023 Report this
Franida Maudsley
Thank you Shirley. You captured our pride in both the project and our veterans very well. This work was so rewarding that some of us volunteers have mixed emotions: happy to have completed our ambitious list, but sorry not to be meeting to work and relax over a common goal.
Saturday, August 5, 2023 Report this