Chillicothe & Ross County — The reason for Memorial Day will be commemorated Monday in several cemeteries. The annual ceremonies will move among six cemeteries to salute the honored dead.
Bob Leach, member of the Ross County Veterans Commission and Quartermaster of Post 108 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, explains those ceremonies in the below interview video – as well as a walking tours of veterans graves in a Chillicothe cemetery, and a new monument in Veterans Park.
Memorial Day on May 27th starts off with a volley and taps at 9am at Grandview Cemetery in Chillicothe. Along with the Ross County Veterans Honor Guard, the Sons of the Veterans of the Civil War will participate, as well as offer a short tour of prominent military graves there.
Then at St. Margaret’s Cemetery on the other end of town, another volley and taps will sound at 9:30.
At yet another corner of Chillicothe, Greenlawn Cemetery will have two events – 10am at Soldier’s Circle, and 10:15 at Soldier’s Square.
Then volleys and taps will sound at 10:45 at at Floral Hills Memory Gardens off US 23 in southern Ross County.
The Ross County Veterans Honor Guard will help with Hallsville’s Memorial Day event at 11:30. Then the ceremonies will finish at Roland Cemetery at 12:30, on State Route 104 near Fairgrounds Road.
I caught Leach in Veterans Memorial Park as he was waiting to line up for the Feast of the Flowering Moon parade.
A short ceremony there had dedicated a new item among the monuments. The Suicide Prevention Coalition sponsored a bench to remember veterans who have taken their lives…and to avoid more.
Leach also described the walking tour next weekend, “Notable Souls – the Greenlawn Cemetery Edition.” On Sunday, June 2nd, the Chillicothe Restoration Foundation will provide interpretation of more than 50 military graves in Chillicothe’s east side cemetery at Eastern Avenue and Watt Street.
Those include Spanish Flu victims, an unknown WWI soldier, a German prisoner of war, and the three Dennewitz brothers who died in service during WWII. (I will be stationed at a small section of “moved graves” that came from a forgotten burial ground on East Main Street at North Sugar Street.)
The tour will be $10 for individuals and $15 for families. An interpretive and self-guided booklet will be included.
(I also mentioned my walking tour of Grandview Cemetery, but mistakenly said June 6th, instead of the 8th. Find information on my Facebook pages.)
