Ms. Quincy Whitehead serves as the Alabama
National Cemetery’s first director located in Montevallo,
Alabama (15 miles south of Birmingham).
She has served as the director at Barrancas
National Cemetery in Pensacola, Fla. Also with national
cemeteries in Leavenworth, Kan.; Quantico, Va.; and Milwaukee.
She is an Army veteran who also served in the Army Reserve and
the Naval Reserve.
The newest United States
National Cemetery in the nation was dedicated July 2008 with the
first interment on June 25th, 2009.
When finished, the 479-acre cemetery will serve approximately
200,000 veterans over the next 50 years.
For information concerning the cemetery, you may call
1-800-535-1117 or visit their website at
www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1481
The Alabama Veterans Administration National
Cemetery is a national cemetery for veterans of the United
States armed forces located on 479 acres adjacent to the
American Village near Montevallo. The cemetery's director is
Quincy Whitehead. The first phase was dedicated on July 13,
2008.
The process of developing America's 129th national cemetery in
the Birmingham area began in December 2003 when the Department
of Veterans Affairs began speaking with local representatives
and veterans' groups to solicit suggested sites. Spencer Bachus
took a lead role in assisting the process. The area surrounding
American Village was quickly chosen as the best site, with
evaluations lasting from December 2004 to April 26, 2006,
followed by a 30-day public comment period.
Two of the four parcels under initial consideration were no
longer available when the National Cemetery Association began
land acquisition. The 495-acre "Fowler Tract" was purchased from
Clyde and Chloette Brown in July 2007 for $8 million earmarked
in the 2006 federal budget. Master planning and design
development proceeded under the 2007 federal budget, and $18.5
million was included in the 2008 budget for construction.
The first full phase of development will provide 9,100
full-casket grave sites, a 2,700-unit columbarium, and 3,100
in-ground spaces for cremated remains. Other facilities will
include an administration office and information desk, a
maintenance complex, shelters for committal services, and
associated infrastructure. In October 2008 Birmingham's Civil
Consultants, Inc. was awarded a $1.3 million contract to design
the first phase.
The July 13, 2008 dedication ceremony, held on a slope on the
American Village property overlooking the cemetery site, was
presided over by Montevallo mayor Sharon Anderson with William
Tuerk, Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs of the Department of
Veterans Affairs' National Cemetery Administration. The 313th
Army Band, U. S. Army Reserve provided music and former Korean
War P.O.W. Newton Duke led the Pledge of Allegiance. A
"consecration" took place on April 9, with clergy from various
faiths conducting services at the site.
The first burials at the cemetery took place in May 2009. The
remainder of the first phase of construction, encompassing
administrative and maintenance buildings, a memorial walkway,
utilities and 9,000 gravesites, was contracted later that year.
