If you expect someone who hangs out with dead people to be morbid and dour, you haven’t met Lori Wright Vining.

Vining, secretary/treasurer for the Laurel Grove Cemetery Association in Woolwich, is passionate about local history, her predecessors and about maintaining the places where they currently reside. And it shows.

Walking through Laurel Grove Cemetery, Vining comes alive with the stories that rest here alongside the headstones. She is animated and engaging as she recalls the former mailman, the sea captain’s daughter and the World War II solder, and their exploits.

Vining said she gained her interest in local history from her family. “Both sides of my family were very interested in family history and telling stories,” Vining said. “It’s what I grew up with, and I was like a sponge absorbing it.”

Vining also grew up in a family where grave tending and cemetery preservation were a way of life. Her father, Ralph Wright Jr.,  was the director of the Laurel Grove Cemetery for decades, and her mother, Helen, served as treasurer.

“When I was a child, the cemetery meetings were held in our house. My mother made a big affair of it,” Vining said. “She spent all day long cooking, frying donuts. I think people came more for her donuts and cinnamon rolls than the meeting.”

These days, Vining is following in her parents’ footsteps. A few years back, Laurel Grove Cemetery was in disrepair and the cemetery association almost disbanded. With complaints coming in, people with relatives in the cemetery were contacted.

“We held an emergency meeting and elected new officers and directors,” Vining said. “By the next spring and summer, we started to work like crazy to cut back brush, assess damage to stones and trim back bushes.”

Due to their efforts, Laurel Grove Cemetery is once again in fine condition. The Maine Old Cemeteries Association recognized Laurel Grove Association for its restoration work in 2010.

Keeping the cemetery and graves ship shape is still a family affair. Vining’s husband, Ken, is the association’s president, her son, Jake, a director, and her nephew mows the cemetery.

The Wright Vinings aren’t the only family involved, of course. Brothers Arthur and Allan Brawn, and his wife Ruth are directors; and Roger Brawn is vice-president. ”You’ll find everyone involved is somehow related,” Vining said. “That’s the way it’s always been.”

Vining has spent hours researching the history of Laurel Grove’s residents and documenting its veterans. “We were quite certain we had more veterans than on the list,” Vining said. “I wrote down every name in the cemetery and then searched Ancestry.com, military records and the town census.” While placing veterans’ markers, her son also discovered veterans’ graves that were overgrown and hidden.

In all, Vining documented almost 30 unrecognized veterans in Laurel Grove Cemetery. “It was a very emotional experience for me, finding those veterans,” she said. “All those years they lay there unacknowledged, without flags on their graves. It broke my heart.”

Through a community effort, Laurel Grove Cemetery, in the geographic center of Woolwich, has been restored. With a revitalized association back at the helm and the possibility of financial support from the town, the future looks bright for this small cemetery immersed in local history.

“I think about my dad, who is buried right over there, and think about how happy he would be,” Vining said.