The Roanoke Island Memorial Gardens Cemetery was developed in late 1963 by Roanoke Island Memorial Gardens, Inc. as a perpetual care cemetery. In late 1962, Albert Q. Bell, Sr. approached his son Richard C. Bell to draw plans for a cemetery in a gardenlike setting on Roanoke Island. Approximately 6.4 acres including entrance roads were included in the original planning efforts. Albert saw a future need for gravesites as more and more families began settling on the Outer Banks and Roanoke Island.
The original owners of record were Sergeant Arthur Fields, North Carolina Highway Patrol and his family. In 1962, Sergeant Fields had a tragic accident while pursuing a speeder and was given a medical discharge from the patrol. Following his discharge, Sergeant Arthur fields contracted Albert Bell, Sr. to build Roanoke Island Memorial Gardens on property owned by his family, utilizing the plans created by Bell’s son.
Albert Bell Sr. was a gifted and practical man, who lovingly built the cemetery. He predicted he would be the first person buried in the gardens and so he was in September 1964.
Roanoke Island Memorial Gardens was originally regulated by the North Carolina Cemetery Commission. The provisions of the North Carolina Cemetery Act required Roanoke Island Memorial Gardens, Inc. to set aside a portion of the sale proceeds from the sale of each cemetery plot or niche to be held by the Cemetery Funds of North Carolina as a perpetual care fund for the cemetery.
The Fields family owned and operated Roanoke Island Memorial Gardens, Inc. 1963 to 2002. The family owned property adjacent to and near the cemetery, all of which was in close proximity to the Dare County Regional Airport. Dare County Airport Authority expressed interest to the Field’s family in preserving the airspace approaches to the airport and ensuring the aircraft airspace approaches to the Airport were free of obstacles created by trees and other obstructions.
In 2000, the Fields family and the Dare County Airport Authority began negotiations for the Airport’s acquisition of some of the properties owned by the Fields family near the Dare County Airport. The Airport Authority wanted to acquire the properties for public airport purposes. Despite the Airport Authority’s lack of interest in acquiring the cemetery, the Fields family would not sell its other properties to the Airport Authority unless the Airport Authority accepted a donation of the cemetery at the same time.
After contacting the North Carolina Cemetery Commission to discuss methods by which the Airport Authority would acquire the cemetery, the Airport Authority elected to proceed with the acquisition of the cemetery as a donation from the Fields family as part of an overall sale of other properties to the Airport Authority.
Negotiations between the Airport Authority and the Fields family continued through 2001. In early 2002, the Dare County Board of Commissioners approved the Airport Authority’s acquisition of the cemetery. On March 6, 2002, the Airport Authority and the Fields family received the consent of the North Carolina Cemetery Commission to transfer of the cemetery to the Airport Authority. The North Carolina Cemetery Commission made a determination that once the acquisition of the cemetery was completed, neither the cemetery nor the cemetery’s perpetual care fund would be under the jurisdiction of the North Carolina Cemetery Commission, since at that point the Cemetery would be owned and operated by a governmental agency (the Airport Authority). In 2006, the Airport Authority received the funds from the perpetual care fund. It is currently maintained and used by the Airport Authority for perpetual maintenance of the cemetery.
The closing acquisition of the cemetery by the Airport Authority took place on May 31, 2002. At its August 5, 2002 meeting, the Dare County Board of Commissioners approved cemetery plot and niche sales by the Airport Authority to the public. In late 2002, the Airport Authority approved a complete revision of the rules and regulations for the Roanoke Island Memorial Gardens.
