Since 1872, Elmwood Cemetery at 4900 E. Truman Rd. has been the final resting place for many notable people that made an impact in Kansas City. While their faces may no longer be familiar, many of those names carry on today. This month, the Northeast News is featuring some of those familiar names laid to rest there.

Della Cochrane Lamb, November 5, 1874 –
January 27, 1951

The namesake for Della Lamb Community Services, 500 Woodland Ave., was born in Illinois, and after moving to Kansas City she attended the former Melrose Methodist Church at Windsor and Bales Avenues. She volunteered in the church’s day nursery for working mothers, which led to a lifetime of community service.

In 1906, she was named president of the board of directors for the Institutional Neighborhood House, a community center sponsored by the Methodist church that provided a gymnasium, night school, play room, kindergarten, sewing school and summer ice service. The center was renamed the Della C. Lamb Neighborhood House in 1946 in honor of Della’s many years of service.

She suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage at age 76 and is buried in the Cochrane-Lamb family plot, alongside her toddler daughter Annette, teenage son Frederick Jr. and husband Frederick Sr.