Barbara Turner’s memorial garden for her late parents is nearly finished several months after she took over the Gay Parita gas-station site west of Halltown, Missouri.
Barbara Turner announced her intentions to build the garden that would contain her parents’ cremains shortly after taking over the property in April.
During the early 2000s, Gary Turner built a re-creation of the Gay Parita Sinclair station that stood there from 1930 until a fire destroyed it in 1955. He charmed thousands of Route 66 visitors over the years until his death in January 2015. Lena died a few weeks after her husband.
Barbara Turner posted a short video Monday evening of the progress on the memorial garden.
She later emailed higher-quality photos of the garden. It includes a variety of plants, stones, a pond, a sign that reads “Welcome Friends for Life – Gary’s Gay Parita” and a small monument that includes the birth dates, death dates and the names of Gary and Lena Turner.
Barbara Turner said by Facebook text message she still needs paint touch-ups on the sign. But she acknowledged the memorial garden may never be completely finished.
“I probably will keep adding here and there,” she wrote.
(Images of the Gay Parita memorial garden courtesy of Barbara Turner)
Truly happy we got to meet Gary, one of the high points of our trip. Much respect.