The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By: Shirley Linder, Quill Editor
Although it was hot and humid on Sunday, May 27th, the Stronghurst American Legion Post #765 presented a very nice Memorial Day Service at the Stronghurst Cemetery in honor of our veterans.
Jim Blender, Commander of the American Legion Post #765, gave the opening remarks and also read the poem:
We Shall Keep the Faith
by Moina Michael, November 1918
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
He then introduced the speaker for the day, Rev. Dan Siems of the Raritan Baptist Church.
Rev. Seems gave a few opening remarks and then read the Gettysburg Address. He closed by saying, "May these words remind us again of a call to live in way that will celebrate our unity in the midst of diversity. And that we will give ourselves to treating one another with dignity and respect. May these words remind us again of the call to carry out the second greatest commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ, to love our neighbor as ourselves and may we know the love of God enabling us to fulfill this command. Amen."
Then Fran Work read the names of veterans buried in the Stronghurst Township Cemeteries of Olena, Watson, Maple Grove, Hopper, and Stronghurst. For Stronghurst the names were broken down into the war they served including: Civil War, Spanish American, World War 1, World War II, Korean, Peace Time, Vietnam, and the Gulf War.
The program concluded with taps and a 21 gun salute.