Approximately 600 people are buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Billings Heights, and many did not have loved ones to remember them.
Every year, Yellowstone County holds a special ceremony for those who died without family.
County officials buried the cremated remains of 27 people in a special corner known as the Indigent Cemetery on Wednesday.
It's a ceremony that often happens with very few people, but friends showed up to make it that much more special.
"One of the highest honors is to conduct the funeral," said state Rep. Mike Yakawich, R-Billings.
He read a poem he had written, gave a prayer and read a Bible verse.
"There's a time for everything, a season for every activity under the heavens," Yakawich said.
Yakawich has conducted more than 200 funerals, including annually at Riverside Cemetery.
"I certainly believe that those laid to rest are comforted," Yakawich said about the ceremony. "Some people who have come here heard about their friend or high school friend who's passed and see that we respectfully buried them. They themselves are very much comforted."
This year, classmates of Bill Shipp, who graduated from Billings Senior High School in 1972, remembered their friend.
"He would start up a conversation with you and you just kind of felt at ease with him because he was so easy going and just he cared about people," said Brad Ziegler, who knew Shipp in school and later as a neighbor.
Robin Hein came from Helena for her husband, who wrote in an obituary that Shipp played center for the Bronc football team and was known as Boats.
"Because of his last name being Shipp, he took on the nickname of Boats," Ziegler said.
Another group also came by to remember a friend and co-worker.
Yellowstone County Commissioner John Ostlund said 20 years ago, the cemetery needed maintenance and gives credit to a former commissioner.
"Commissioner (Jim) Reno kind of guided this, and we've carried on since he left," Ostlund said. "But as you can see, it's a beautiful place and it's a place where we can show respect to those people who were less fortunate than us."
And Ostlund says U.S. Marine veteran Joe Aguilar was instrumental in bringing respect back to Riverside Cemetery.
"Everything I do out here, I take it personal," said Aguilar, the cemetery's groundskeeper. "There were brothers, sisters, mothers, sons, daughters of somebody. And it's only proper that we honor them."
"And may they come closer to you in the bosom of heaven," Yakawich said in a prayer during the ceremony.
"Life is precious and live life to its best," he said.
