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Dorothy Copus Brush Amewrican flags mean In cemeteries across the nation small American
flags appear shortly before each Memorial Day. Each flag marks
the grave of a veteran of war. This act of remembrance is usually
carried out by volunteers. It might be a Boy Scout troop or a
veterans organization. That is the case in Crossville where members
of the American Legion Post 163 accept that responsibility annually. J.H. Brown Jr. is commander of the group,
and he suggested that I join them as they placed the flags at
the Old City Cemetery and the Hyder Cemetery. Old City Cemetery
is an appropriate name because it came into being in 1890 when
the widow and heirs of James S. Shellito gave two acres for a
cemetery in Crossville. I joined the 10 veterans of World War II and
the Korean War and one of their three active women members, Debbie
Ritchie. She entered the Air Force in 1977 and served six years.
The rest of the group was made up of Commander Brown, Lester
Goforth, Tom Baikle, Don Mustard, Dick Brady, Blaine Hedgecoth,
Bill Luttrell, Pappy Abner and Frank Gilbert. They had 500 flags, and after those two cemeteries
are decorated the remaining supply is divided between the local
funeral homes to be used in other area cemeteries. We worked
in twos, carrying the flags and walking the rows of gravestones.
A cross on the top of the stone or a plaque in the ground indicated
a veteran's resting place. It was necessary to use a screwdriver
to make a hole in the hard earth for the flag stick. In one section we disturbed a mother killdeer,
and she fearlessly defended her nest. She chattered at us and
sounded like a drill sergeant ordering us to move out. There were many graves of those who served
in World War I and World War II and the Korean War, but I saw
no veterans of the Spanish-American War. As our task neared the
end we were greeted by the two groundskeepers, Lawrence Matthews
and Kerley Venable. These two employees of the Crossville Public
Works Department work hard and take pride in seeing that the
cemetery is well cared for. Matthews has worked here for 10 years, and
he led us to some Civil War graves we had missed. He also pointed
out the grave of 1st Lt. Narramore, who served on the Continental
Line during the Revolutionary War. After all the flags were placed, we gathered
for a short time and Commander Brown spoke of the diminishing
ranks of veterans. Cumberland County lost an average of 84 a
year until this year's count jumped to 100. All those small American flags will remain in place until Monday when they will be removed and packed away until next time. As you pass a cemetery decorated with flags, pause and remember the truth of the words that appear on the Korean War Memorial in Washington, DC, "Freedom is not free." |