Memorial Day services planned this week
May 24—Owensboro will celebrate Memorial Day with at least 10 events scheduled between Tuesday, May 24, and Monday.
It begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 24, at the Charles E. Shelton Freedom Memorial, a memorial to prisoners of war and missing in action from all of America's wars, in Smothers Park.
Jessie Hettinger, president of the VFW Auxiliary, said the Rolling Thunder motorcycle group will have its annual service in memory of American servicemen and women who never came home from war.
She said the ceremony will include the "missing man table" for those who were lost in action.
Mackenzie Bell, a 15-year-old fiddle player from Ohio County, will play the national anthem at the ceremony.
Robert W. Brooks said the Lieutenant Robert Moseley Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, will celebrate Memorial Day at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Moseley Square Cemetery, 722 E. Fifth St.
He said 32 veterans of the American War for Independence moved to and lived in Daviess County after the war ended.
Brooks said that during the ceremony the name of each known veteran will be read aloud followed by the ringing of a bell.
Hettinger said at 4 p.m. Friday, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 696, 311 W. Veterans Blvd, will host its annual "Remembrance Field of Poppies" on its north lawn.
The field of white crosses will represent the Kentuckians who have died in combat since 2001.
Hettinger said County Commissioner Charlie Castlen, District Judge Shannon Meyer and County Clerk Leslie McCarty will read the names of more than 300 men and women who have died.
Bell will play "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Amazing Grace." And Tara Noel Estes will sing the national anthem.
On Saturday, activities begin with a 10:30 a.m. service at Greenwood Cemetery, 821 Leitchfield Road, where more than 200 veterans are buried.
At 2 p.m. that day, Glenn Family Services will host its annual Memorial Day celebration at Owensboro Memorial Gardens, 5050 Kentucky 144, with music, speakers and military salutes.
At 1 p.m. on Sunday, James L. Yates American Legion Post 9 will host a memorial service in the Veterans Triangle at Elmwood Cemetery, 1300 Old Hartford Road.
And at 5 p.m. that day, a Memorial Day service is scheduled at Utica Baptist Church, 415 Kentucky 1207.
On Monday, the day begins at 8 a.m. with the Brandon Scott Mullins Memorial Foundation in partnership with the Kentucky Chapter of American Gold Star Mothers, the Woody Williams Foundation and Carry The Load sponsoring a walk/run for the community starting at the Shelton Memorial.
At 11 a.m., the veterans affairs committee and the city will have their annual Memorial Day service at the Owensboro Sportscenter, 1215 Hickman Ave.
Names of all veterans who have died in the past 12 months will be read aloud.
At 1 p.m. that day, VFW Post 696 will conduct its annual sea service at the post.
Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com.
