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Sunday, November 15, 2026Nov 15

Funeral director collecting Sunset Memorial Gardens complaints

The central mausoleum hall at Sunset Memorial Gardens.
The central mausoleum hall at Sunset Memorial Gardens.

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Owner of Sunset Gardens cemetery in Cleveland faces license suspension

CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Even as a steady stream of people filed into Ralph Buckner Funeral Home to register complaints about the upkeep of Sunset Memorial Gardens, maintenance workers were busy whitewashing the cemetery’s mausoleum interiors on Thursday afternoon.

The cemetery, located on North Lee Highway and owned by Cecil Lawrence Inc. of Dallas, Ga., faces a possible suspension of its license in connection with conditions cited in state inspections that occurred between July 31 and Aug. 7. Decomposing human remains were linked to “noxious odors” emanating from Sunset Memorial Garden’s New Chapel mausoleum, according to state authorities.