Wichita waives fees for 25 veterans' grave markers at Highland Cemetery

Twenty-five military veterans buried in unmarked graves at Highland Cemetery will finally get headstones after the City of Wichita agreed to waive $625 in permit fees that stood in the way.

The city contacted Friends of the Wichita Pioneers on Aug. 25 to confirm the waiver, according to KWCH. The decision caps months of work by the nonprofit, which cares for Wichita's oldest cemetery near 9th and Hillside. Volunteers spent that time combing through cemetery and military records to identify the veterans, who served in conflicts spanning the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I and the Korean War.

"They've served our country and we owe them better than an unmarked grave," said Barb Myers, a historian who represents the nonprofit. "So we're going to make sure that they get that."

The federal government provides military grave markers at no cost, but installing them requires the city to first mark each plot. Wichita had already waived its usual $50 per-monument fee for the 25 markers, but a separate $25 administrative fee per marker remained. Myers said she asked parks staff to drop that charge and was told no. She had planned to take the request to the Wichita City Council before the city reversed course.

Had the waiver not come through, the volunteers planned to pay the $625 themselves.

Myers said the group contributed roughly 3,000 volunteer hours at Highland Cemetery in the past year, work she values at more than $70,000. Almost all of the nonprofit's funds go toward tools and equipment; volunteers provide labor for free and do not charge families anything.

One of the 25 veterans identified is Charles Adams, whose wife has a marked grave while Adams himself does not. Volunteers sometimes paid for the records research out of their own pockets.

Myers told the Wichita City Council on Nov. 25, 2025, that the group had received a National Science Foundation grant for ground-penetrating radar and photogrammetry research at Highland. One goal is to locate the unmarked grave of Rich Robinson, described as the sole African American signer of Wichita's city charter.

The city owns Highland Cemetery, which dates to Wichita's founding. KWCH reported that it had reached out to the city for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Friends of the Wichita Pioneers plans to honor the 25 veterans at a rededication ceremony at Highland Cemetery on Nov. 14, 2026.