May 10, 2011
The Jonestown Memorial Fund announced today that a new memorial to the 918 people who died in the Jonestown tragedy in 1978 has been installed at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California.
A private dedication service for the new memorial will be held at noon on Sunday, May 29, 2011.
The new memorial consists of four memorial plaques which list the names of all 918 people who died in Guyana that day. The plaques have been placed next to the original memorial marker erected in May 1979 by the Guyana Emergency Relief Committee at Evergreen. The plaques will be formally unveiled during the May 29 service.
The new memorial was made possible through private donations raised by the Jonestown Memorial Fund. More than 120 people – mainly former members of Peoples Temple, as well as relatives of those who died in Guyana – contributed over $20,000 in less than two months to pay for the memorial plaques. Evergreen Cemetery donated an equal amount in labor and material to the effort.
The cemetery is located at 6450 Camden Avenue in Oakland.
For more information, contact:
For the Jonestown Memorial Fund:
Fielding McGehee, 619-584-1841
Jim W. Jones, Jr., 650-787-0557
John Cobb, 510-376-6710
For Evergreen Cemetery:
Ron Haulman, 408-287-8700