La Cygne's cemetery steps into the digital age
- Roger Sims
- Apr 13
- 4 min read
By Roger Sims, Journal staff
LA CYGNE – It feels a little strange at first, taking a virtual walk – of sorts – through the Oak Lawn cemetery in La Cygne.
You can take the tour on your laptop or stop at the kiosk at the entry of the cemetery. Scan a QR code and a map of the cemetery pops up on your smart phone’s browser. Enter a name in the search link, and a photo of a grave marker appears along with the location of the grave on the cemetery map.
Want to see who else is buried in the area? Click on surrounding grave sites, and for each site a photo of a grave marker appears where someone is interred. Or find a section of the cemetery, chose a burial plot, click on it and once you’ve found the information on that one, click on the plot beside it. Then the next. And the next. It is a virtual rabbit hole into the history of La Cygne, Kansas.
In a first for Linn County, the digital information system Chronicle, allows visitors a virtual map of the Oak Lawn Cemetery, including each section. But it also allows more in-depth information to be added in honor of a loved one: photos, obituaries, memories or whatever the family chooses to add in pdf form.
Relatives can choose to make a living memorial for their loved one for $80. That can include photos, text, or anything else that would illuminate the lives of those who have passed on. Chronicle receives $20 for each living tombstone, and the city receives $60, which goes into the fund to help maintain the cemetery.
Making a virtual visit to the cemetery is possible from home or wherever a laptop can connect to the internet. That option offers a great resource to local historians and a fascinating rabbit hole for the curious to go down.
The idea of the digitizing the map to the city’s cemeteries began more than two years ago.
David Brenneman, a former member of the La Cygne City Council, was assigned to a committee that oversaw the cemeteries (the Oak Lawn Cemetery is actually comprised of Oaklawn, Pollman and La Cygne cemeteries).
Brenneman went to work creating a list of those who are buried there, and Danny Curtis, then a council member built the kiosk for the bulletin board. Brenneman used the data base at city hall to compile the list of names, spending considerable time on the project.
However, as he completed the project, he thought about the future.
“I realized there was no one to take care of the bulletin board,” Brenneman said.
So he started looking at different options for creating a searchable online database. Legacy, a company that is involved in publishing obituaries from across the nation, had such a database, but it was too expensive.
Then he found Chronicle, a company that also provides online cemetery services. That company quoted a price of $14,750 to set up the system and $780 per year to provide the service. However, the annual subscription price was set at $3,400 once all the burial sites were tallied.
Brenneman said he broached the concept to his fellow council members. But the council’s reception was lukewarm at best.
City hall staff was also skeptical. City Clerk Jodi Wade said the city had purchased a cemetery module for its software earlier in 2024 and didn’t want to incur the extra expense.
But in 2025, that changed. The city’s software provider indicated programs city hall was using would no longer be supported and the city was forced to go shopping for another software provider.
However, Wade said the new software provider did not have cemetery software, and it was decided to purchase the Chronicle program.
Wade and the city hall staff have spent the first quarter of 2026 implementing all of the new software. Implementing the Chronicle program was not as much a priority as getting the utilities programs and other essential programs up and running. However, at the council’s April 1 meeting Wade announced the Chronicle software was available to the public.
Brenneman, who stepped down from his council post at the end of 2025 but is now a member of the city’s cemetery committee. He said he still hopes that the bulletin board in the entry kiosk, which was made large enough for a directory for hundreds of names, can now be used for a sign that has the cemetery rules posted.
Brenneman said that there are 10 other cemeteries in Kansas that use Chronicle software, with two of those in the metropolitan area.
He also said he is glad that the software will be up and running by the Memorial Day service scheduled for Oak Lawn on May 25.
For easy access, the Journal staff has created links in the copy for this story, however, the web addresses for options are included below:
To access the locator and cemetery map, here is the website:
To create on online memorial for your loved ones:
To purchase a cemetery plot online:
While the poster lists a website, our attempt to use it linked to a site for selling replacement windows. For now it is best to visit La Cygne City Hall to make arrangement.
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