Veterans will be honored during Memorial Day weekend through ceremony and tributes at local cemeteries. The public is invited to attend and honor veterans through these events.
The Ladies’ and Men’s Auxiliary will host a Memorial Day Observance at East Lawn Memorial Park at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, May 27th. During the ceremony, patriotic songs will be sung, Taps will be played, and a Memorial Day address will be given by Chaplain James Looby, USN, Retired.
Greenleaf Cemetery, in Brownwood, will host the playing of Taps nightly, as a tribute to the many military veterans buried there. At 8:00 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday, May 25-27, Taps will be played nightly at the flag pole location. This tribute is offered by S. Sgt. Les Beasley, USMC (Retired), and member of the American Legion Post #196 of Brownwood. According to organizers, this will be a short, Taps only ceremony. In addition to this ceremony, volunteers will place 1300 flags on veterans’ graves on Saturday morning.
Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic and was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war. It is now celebrated in almost every state on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971).
