JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A north Florida mailman spends his Sundays cleaning veterans' headstones at rundown cemeteries.
On Memorial Day weekend, 60-year-old Clarence Hollowell was at the Old City Cemetery in Springfield near Jacksonville. Here he cleaned the headstones of Capt. S. L. Tibbitts and 1st Lt. Joseph H. Huau. Once he finishes, he writes their names on a sheet of paper and does some detective work to learn about them.
Hollowell tells The Florida Times-Union he comes from a military family and served in the U.S. Army. He says cleaning veterans' graves helps the community and gives him a project.
It takes about two to three weeks to clean the headstones.
Hollowell says he's cleaned some 600 graves, using a plastic scraper, a soft bristled brush and a special solution he orders online.
