Sweeping the Graves: An Homage to Decoration Day

Earlier this summer at the Winningham family cemetery in Pickett County, Tennessee, Carolyn Massiongale conducted a master class for her three granddaughters. The tools at hand were a garden hoe, rake, and broom. The topic: how to mound a grave.

"OK! What we do is take a hoe and rake the dirt up to where the grave is at," Massiongale said, working at the red clay dirt. "But remember, it needs to be fairly straight, my children."...