Volunteers stepped out in wet weather Saturday then spread between local cemeteries Saturday to pause and lay a wreath on soldiers’ graves, including at the headstone of Lendal B. Simmons, a sergeant in the U.S. Army in World War II who lived 1923 to 1990. (Photo by James Draper)
“To be killed in war is not the worst that can happen. To be lost is not the worst that can happen. To be forgotten is the worst.”
Several dozen locals braved the rain Saturday morning to ensure Gladewater’s sons and daughters who served would not be forgotten.
It was the second year the community has participated in Wreaths Across America, spearheaded here by Gladewater Chamber of Commerce. Lois Reed and her team of volunteers gathered first at Veterans’ Memorial Plaza downtown Dec. 14, with Mayor Brandy Flanagan welcoming the group while Boy Scout Troop 198 and Pack 196 served as Color Guard and led the Pledge of Allegiance.
A local Honor Guard also placed symbolic wreaths for each service branch including the U.S. Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines and POW/MIA before veteran Jim Jones recounted the history of the national Wreaths Across America effort, established by Morrill Worcester.
For more than three decades, Worcester Wreath Company in Maine has promoted the annual placement of wreaths at veteran gravesites, exhorting others to ‘Remember. Honor. Teach.’ In 2022, volunteers placed more than 2.7 million sponsored wreaths. This year, local donors covered the cost of 450 wreaths, with surplus funds already set aside for 2025.
Remember that veterans are devoted sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, Jones told the crowd before they headed out to local cemeteries. At each, Reed encouraged the volunteers, young and old, to pause and read each veteran’s name at the flagged graves before adorning it with a wreath.
“We are one nation, with one flag,” Jones said. “We are proud to be Americans that live in a free society, made up of many people, many races, from many walks of life. These freedoms came with a price.
“Lying in our cemeteries are men and women who lived so we can live in those freedoms without fear.”
- By James Draper
