Our History
Roselawn officially began on May 25, 1919. A committee of seven members of the new organization visited a cemetery in St. Louis to get ideas for the layout of the cemetery. A local firm of Fordyce and Feild did the topographical surveys, and Tipton & Hurst Florist was chosen to furnish shrubbery for grounds beautification. American Park Builders of Chicago was selected as the first landscape architect.
In April 1920, Mr. T. N. Campbell was hired as the first cemetery superintendent. The first burial was Mr. Max Augusta Joslyn who died on February 4, 1920. Two of the largest funerals held in Roselawn were Senator Joe T. Robinson in 1937 and Senator John L. McClellan in 1977.
Roselawn was the first perpetual care cemetery in Arkansas, and now has the largest perpetual care fund of any cemetery in Arkansas. The original office, "The Gatehouse," was designed by the prestigious Little Rock architect, Mr. Charles Thompson, and remains on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1994, Roselawn added a beautiful chapel mausoleum consisting of 768 crypts and 80 niches. Roselawn continues to expand to the west by buying vacant lots as they become available. We now have more than 5,000 land grave spaces for sale.