Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson, left, presents a city proclamation to Melvin Nelson. They are accompanied by fellow recipients of the Westside Archives recognition: Thelma Johnson Branham, City Councilman Joseph 'Sonny' Vickers, Timbuktu Celebration 'King Father' Minister Willie B. Lewis, and James Oliver. Not pictured is recipient Lowndes County Commissioner Joyce Evans.

VALDOSTA — Melvin Nelson remembers working in Sunset Hill Cemetery at the age of 13.

“They hired me and didn’t even ask me my name for the longest time,” Nelson recalls.

Eventually, Melvin Nelson became the go-to name for anything related to Sunset Hill Cemetery.

Last week, Nelson and other local people were honored by the Westside Archives’ A Past, A Present, A Future program. Westside Archives gave Nelson the Truthfulness Award, said Grady “Mr. Spanky” Whitfield of the archives.

City Manager Larry Hanson also presented Nelson with a proclamation from Mayor John Fretti declaring this past Friday as Melvin Nelson Day in the City of Valdosta.

Nelson worked more than 50 years with the city’s Sunset Hill Cemetery.

He retired as cemetery supervisor in the mid-1990s but occasionally returns to visit the cemetery. There was a time, however, when Nelson worked Sunset Hill seven days per week, nearly every week, for decades.

He knew the cemetery like the back of his hand.

Years ago, at twilight, a policeman knocked at Nelson’s door. The policeman was escorting a young man looking for his father’s grave.

The man was born a few months after his father died in a Valdosta accident.

He had never known his father. He had never visited his father’s grave. His mother had moved away from the area after the accident.

This man had a young family with him, and he had traveled to Valdosta to visit his father’s grave. They had stopped at the police station, and the officer had escorted them to Melvin Nelson’s house.

Though off-duty, and with night creeping over the horizon, Nelson guided the group through Sunset Hill Cemetery. Nelson’s car took the lead, the police and the young man followed.

Nelson stopped his car so that the young man’s car stopped in front of one grave. Nelson walked back to the second car and stood by a marker. This is the grave, Nelson said.

He had used no map. No inventory sheets. He shined no light on the marker.

Nelson remembered the man’s name, remembered the accident more than 20 years earlier that had claimed this life. He remembered where the marker stood in Sunset, as he knew where most markers were located, by memory.

The police officer shined a light on the headstone. In the light, etched in stone, was the name of the young man’s father. The young man wailed with unexpected grief. His long-lost daddy so suddenly found right beside his stopped car.

“You would see that sometime,” Nelson says. “People overcome by finding a loved one.”

Nelson was born in 1928 to Rutherford Nelson Sr. and Rachel Butler Nelson. He began working at a young age.

His boss may not have known his name but paid the teenager cash for work in the cemetery.

A place of the dead became Nelson’s life, and he took great care in respecting those buried in Sunset Hill and those who came to visit them.

In addition to his regular duties at the cemetery, Hanson said that Nelson, along with the Rev. Willie Wade, was instrumental in the development and construction of Sunset Hill’s Unknown Slave Memorial.

His research located the unmarked grave sites for area slaves, which became the site for the memorial, according to the city proclamation.

In addition to his hard work, Hanson recalled Nelson’s love for golf, often taking a few swings at a ball in the one-time field on the backside of the cemetery. In his early 80s, Nelson still loves golf.

Westside Archives also honored:

• Thelma Johnson Branham, 96, worked as a Valdosta and Lowndes County teacher for more than 40 years. She is also proud of having taught Sunday school for most of her life.

She has traveled extensively around the world. She received Westside Archives’ Essie Allen Spruel Icon Award sponsored by an anonymous Valdosta citizen.

• James Oliver of Southern Stationary received the Westside Archives Historical Award. Whitfield recalled many times from his youth when Oliver’s generosity allowed him to complete art projects.

• City Councilman Joseph “Sonny” Vickers received the Westside Archives Achievement Award for more than two decades of service as a city councilman to the citizens of Valdosta. Westside Archives and the Kill-Me-Quick Community sponsored this award.

• Lowndes County Commissioner Joyce Evans was granted the Citizenship Award for her services to the county and its citizens.