The City of Lubbock Cemetery, 2001 E. 31st St., was established in 1892 when a group of Lubbock residents requested five acres of pasture land from rancher H.M.
Bandy to bury Henry Jenkins, a Cochran County cowboy. With more than 60,000 graves, the cemetery is one of the largest in the state. The first Lubbock resident buried there was Joseph R. Coleman, who died in 1892.
His small cross-shaped headstone, no longer in existence, was the first erected in the cemetery. At one time, the cemetery had four separate burial grounds, segregated by race, faith and economic level. Among those buried there is rock 'n' roll legend and Lubbock native Buddy Holly.
