Beautiful Sunset Memorial Park

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[On the eve of this Memorial Day weekend, it is time to reflect on lives lost in our families, the men and women who serve our nation and the freedoms we hold dear. There is no better place to do that than the grounds of Sunset Memorial Park north of Du Quoin, one of the Midwest's most beautiful cemeteries.

Developed in the late 1930s by the late G.W. Allen, wife Connie and their son Gene Allen and wife Charlene, it has been under the ownership and stewardship of the David Searby family of Du Quoin since 1978.

It's finest years have been under the care of funeral directors David and Paul Searby, their wives and staff members David Hill--who is the park's groundskeeper--Donnella Swink and Chad Schrader.

The Searby families purchased the Keeling Funeral Home in Du Quoin in 1972 and the Kringer Funeral Home in Tamaroa in 1974.

The lush eight acres of grounds contain 3,696 graves with enough land acquisition in recent years to the south and west to further develop the park well into the next century.

A recent addition to the park is the erection of what's known as a columbarium, a beautiful stone repository for the remains of families that elect for cremation instead of burial. The columbarium has 48 units--24 on each side--for the placement of cremation urns. In time, a way to place floral remembrances will be added.

Last fall, descendants of the G.W. Allen family worked alongside the Searby family and contracted for the landscaping of what's known as the "circle" around the flagpole, where Allen family members are buried.

What sets Sunset apart from other cemeteries is the fact that floral arrangements are allowed year around because of the bronze markers which are flush to the ground and provide for placement of arrangements in each marker's vase.

It is one of the region's most beautiful parks.