Veterans groups plan Memorial Day cemetery tours
This year, three military veterans’ groups from Jackson County will visit the county’s cemeteries on Memorial Day for the annual salute of fallen military men and women.
Holton VFW Post 1367 and American Legion Post 44 will make the rounds on Monday, as will the recently-created Mayetta American Legion Post 423, to honor those in America’s armed forces who were killed in the line of duty. The public is invited to attend the cemetery ceremonies, as well as a 12:30 p.m. Memorial Day luncheon at the Veterans Club in Holton.
The Holton VFW and Legion posts will also hold a joint service at 11 a.m. that day in Holton Cemetery, then close their tours with an 11:55 a.m. ceremony at the Fallen Soldier Memorial on the southeast corner of Holton’s Town Square, it was reported.
Weekend activities honoring fallen military personnel will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday with a flag-raising ceremony near the old cannon at the southwest corner of the Square. Volunteers will descend on Holton Cemetery that morning to raise the Stars and Stripes along the cemetery’s Avenue of Flags, where the flags will remain in place until the afternoon of Memorial Day.
On Memorial Day, VFW Post 1367 will leave from the Veterans Club in Holton to begin its cemetery tour at 7:30 a.m., arriving first at Denison Cemetery for a 7:50 a.m. ceremony. From there, VFW representatives will go to cemeteries at Larkinburg at 8:35 a.m., Thompson-Burns cemetery at 9:10 a.m. and Pleasant Grove cemetery at 10 a.m.
Holton’s Legion representatives will depart from the Veterans Club at 7 a.m. to begin their first ceremony at 7:10 a.m. at the Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery. That will be followed by stops at Olive Hill Cemetery at 7:50 a.m., Buck’s Grove Cemetery at 8:25 a.m., Soldier Cemetery at 9 a.m. and Circleville Cemetery at 10 a.m. before meeting the VFW team at Holton Cemetery.
Mayetta VFW Post 423 will tour the southern end of the county, starting with an 8 a.m. ceremony at South Cedar Cemetery. That will be followed by stops at Mayetta Cemetery at 8:40 a.m., St. Joseph Cemetery at 9:15 a.m. and Hoyt Cemetery at 9:50 a.m.
It was also reported that Horton’s Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) group will conduct a ceremony at 11:45 a.m. that day in the Netawaka Cemetery.
