LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – An empty field back in November 2023 has significantly changed for the better.<\/p>\n
Crews have been working hard on the West Texas State Veterans Cemetery. While it was supposed to open in December 2025, on-site representative Norm Bearden says a little extra time will go a long way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to open as soon as possible,\u201d Bearden said. \u201cWe were very disappointed that we weren\u2019t able to open back in December, the site just wasn\u2019t quite ready yet, so we want everything to be perfect when we do open.\u201d<\/p>\n
When we last visited the cemetery last August, significant progress was being made to areas and spaces above ground. Sarah Weede, the cemetery\u2019s director, says even six months can allow for a lot of things to get finished.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe installed all the irrigation, we have our hydro seeding with some winter rye that\u2019s already making it look a lot better out here,\u201d Weede said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got our trees in and some of our plants and we completed most of the administration building and maintenance building.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not all though, the committal shelter, which will host the final graveside service, and the columbarium for cremated urns is also near completion. <\/p>\n
Everywhere you look inside the cemetery, there\u2019s a new detail waiting to be explored, something that was done intentionally to honor the ones that sacrificed for this country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a final formation, a final resting place for America\u2019s finest,\u201d Weede said. \u201cTo have them laid to rest here and being able to take care of them perpetually, it\u2019s something we\u2019re really excited to be able to do and very honored to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
As veterans themselves, it\u2019s not lost on Weede and Bearden the significance of this massive project. They hope that when the West Texas State Veterans Cemetery does officially open, it will be well worth the wait.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could very well be our final resting place as well,\u201d Bearden said. \u201cOur blood, sweat, toll and tears will be right here in this cemetery. I don\u2019t know what section it will be, it may be expanded, none of us know how long we have, but this will be my final home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSame for me,\u201d Weede said.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – An empty field back in November 2023 has significantly changed for the better. Crews…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[68926,4140,319,66,168,27,29,28,68925],"class_list":{"0":"post-170487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-cemetery","9":"tag-dylan-villa","10":"tag-kcbd","11":"tag-local","12":"tag-lubbock","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-news","16":"tag-west-texas-state-veterans-cemetery"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}