When you say their name, remember to … pause. The pause is about who they are and in whose footsteps they follow even when the twinge in their shoulders and elbows makes them question why they have a shovel, a scrub brush, or a pry bar in their hands. It’s because of a guy named Bill.
So they call themselves the Green Hill — pause — Billies. The pause is them — and their work.
They clean and repair gravestones in Greensboro’s Green Hill Cemetery, the city’s oldest public burial ground. Near the entrance is a sign that bears their logo, a red bandana — every few weeks, they tie them around their necks and gather. They’re all volunteers, of all ages, young and not so young. They scrub, brush, dig, and lift for a few hours, and sometimes fan out across the city and county to help churches understand how to beautify their own private graveyards and preserve a sacred space.
David Craft formed the Green Hill Billies two years ago. He lives three blocks from Green Hill, and whenever he walked through the cemetery, he saw too many gravestones in various stages of disrepair, including a six-foot obelisk that could topple over with a gentle shove…