Evergreen Cemetery

Evergreen Cemetery sits on Judson Avenue north of downtown Judsonia, a small town in White County that grew along the Little Red River and the railroad. The cemetery dates to the 19th century and is one of the area's principal historic burial grounds, also referred to locally as Judsonia Cemetery. Among its most significant features is the Grand Army of the Republic Monument, dedicated in 1894 and surrounded by the graves of Union veterans who settled in the region after the Civil War; the monument is a recognized historic marker reflecting Judsonia's unusual concentration of Northern settlers.

The cemetery's most photographed feature is a life-size marble statue of a young woman that marks the grave of Laura Lee Henson, who died on November 25, 1914, at the age of 18. According to accounts preserved by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and local historians, Henson died from injuries sustained in a fire; the most commonly repeated version holds that her dress caught fire when she stood too close to a fireplace while away at college. The grieving family commissioned the elaborate carved monument, which has stood watch over her grave for more than a century.

The town of Judsonia itself was devastated by a tornado in 1952, and the cemetery survived as one of the community's enduring historic landmarks. Over the decades the Henson statue and the cemetery's older sections have weathered, and the grounds are maintained today largely through community donations. The cemetery remains active and is closed to visitors at night.