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County to host Veterans Day observance, parade

Greenville Herald-Banner - 10/11/2018

Oct. 10--Hunt County is going to commemorate the observance of Veterans Day, one day ahead of the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I.

Carol Taylor with the Hunt County Historical Commission addressed the Hunt County Commissioners Court during Tuesday's meeting, to provide information on the upcoming Veterans Day program.

A memorial on the grounds of the Hunt County Courthouse pays tribute to those who died during World War I,

Veterans Day began as "Armistice Day" on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of the war. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and Nov. 11 became a national holiday beginning in 1938.

Taylor said the county's observance will be scheduled at 10 a.m.Nov. 10, as the actual anniversary is on a Sunday, on the north side of the Hunt County Courthouse where a memorial pays tribute to those individuals from the county who died during World War I.

Greenville's Mayflower Club commissioned the monument, "To Our Hunt County Heroes", which was actually designed as a drinking fountain. The organization solicited donations from the public through notices in the "Greenville Morning Herald" toward the $1,500 cost of the project. North Texas Granite and Marble Works built the memorial.

The memorial has not been used as a drinking fountain for decades.

The names of 42 individuals were split between the front and obverse sides of the monument, with the dates indicating they died between 1917 and 1919.

"All but two of them were buried in France," Taylor said. "Those two were brought back and they were buried in Campbell."

The ceremony will include an honor guard, the laying of a wreath at the memorial, Taylor reciting the poem "In Flanders Field" and John Mark Dempsey reading the names of each of the fallen soldiers.

"Then we are going to play Taps," Taylor said. "We are going to encourage everyone to leave the memorial in silence, because the big thing that everyone remembered on the battlefield was that at 11 o'clock, the guns stopped. And then at 2 or 3 o'clock that afternoon, the men heard birds for the first time since August of 1914."

The Hunt County Veterans Day Parade is scheduled on the morning of Nov. 3 in downtown Greenville. The Disabled American Veterans is looking for groups, businesses, and individuals to join in the event and is inviting floats, walkers, classic cars, church groups, schools, biker clubs, and sponsors to participate, along with volunteers to assist in helping organize the start of the parade.

The parade will line up at the Farmer's Market at 9 a.m., with the parade starting at 10 a.m. and proceeding west on Lee Street to the Landmark building where all veterans are invited in for coffee, tea, water and socializing until a free lunch is ready.

Additional information is available by contacting the organization's John Turner at 903-217-7127.

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(c)2018 The Herald Banner (Greenville, Texas)

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