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Brown (Okay Community) Cemetery

Killeen, Bell County

Marker Text

Elisha Ivy, for whom Ivy Mountain Road was named, established a home and store in this vicinity in the 1860s. In the 1870s, a community known as Liberty Hill developed northwest of his property. In 1896, when the rural settlement applied for a post office, its name was changed to Okay. Area residents supported churches, a school and businesses, and Samuel Marion and Mary Elizabeth (Evans) Brown set aside land for a community burial ground, formally deeding it in 1907. As military installations in the area grew, the community of Okay was displaced and ceased to exist in the early 1940s. In 1953, the U.S. Government decided to extend the runway at Gray Air Force Base, where the Brown (Okay Community) Cemetery was located, approximately 1,600 feet southwest of this site. The Army Corps of Engineers moved 70 graves, 30 of which were for unidentified individuals, to this location and aligned the burials similarly to original positions. The earliest marked grave dates to 1882 and is that of infant David Davis. Today, the cemetery is a reminder of the Okay community and the families who lived there. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2004

Marker Details

Address
Location Description SW of Killeen, 1.4 mi W of SH 201 on Reeces Creek Rd; adjacent to Gray Army Airfield, Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport
Marker # 13433
Dedicated 2004
Size, Type 16" x 24"
Code cemetery
Latitude, Longitude 31.059758, -97.817898

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