HUMBLE -- Members of a Humble-area church gathered at a neglected cemetery Saturday hoping to give Willie Simms peace at last.

As members sang Amazing Grace, one could not help but notice how the peace of the burial ground hovers in the trees.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found,” the chorus sang out.

A piece of its history was almost stolen, but for the members of Grace Church who gathered to rebury the body of an 11-year-old who died almost 90 years ago, what was once lost was indeed found. In more ways than the physical.

Few members of the church knew of the cemetery that sat mostly untouched for more than a century, until a group of teenage boys admitted to digging up Simms’ grave, decapitating the head and using he skull to smoke marijuana.

The boys’ actions were a wrong so great, Rick Baker worried it would not be righted.

“I know I am not blog kin, but I am still his brother,” said Baker.

Simms must have a lot of kin like Baker, because dozens of people turned out for his reburial on Saturday. More are expected Memorial Day weekend for a massive clean up of the cemetery along FM 1960.

Some of the clean up began this weekend as members of Grace Church started out at 8 a.m. mowing and restoring portions of the historical cemetery. Members of the church said the crime of Simm’s grave desecration has proven to them that the beauty of a place cannot be robbed.

Among those joining in the effort this weekend was Deirdre Taylor, who came to try to figure out who exactly is laid to rest in the cemetery.

On Saturday she got a little help. Johnnie McKnight Langston and her cousin came to the cemetery, where two uncles are buried along with a grandfather and Langston’s mother

A path now cleared, the women walked to their ancestors' graves. A journey made possible in large part to Willie Simms.

“His influence today is much greater than it has ever been,” was part of the prayer recited at the reburial.

With that, Willie Simms was laid to rest again. He has done enough here.