Various Memorial Day events planned

Donna Johnson, Lacey Finch and other volunteers place flags Thursday by the 4,800 headstones at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock in preparation for Memorial Day ceremonies.
Donna Johnson, Lacey Finch and other volunteers place flags Thursday by the 4,800 headstones at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock in preparation for Memorial Day ceremonies.

— Arkansans can celebrate Memorial Day weekend and honor fallen veterans with various activities throughout the state, including observances at veterans cemeteries.

Gov. Mike Beebe will speak at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery at 1501 W. Maryland Ave. in North Little Rock at 10 a.m. Monday, hosted by the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs. Public parking will be available on Maryland Avenue at Sherwood Forest and handicapped parking at Pulaski Technical College Aerospace Technology Center. Vans and buses will transport people to the state cemetery at 8:15 a.m. The ceremony will last 30 to 40 minutes. If it rains, it will be moved to Sherwood Forest.

A veterans monument will be unveiled Saturday at 10 a.m. on the grounds of the Woodruff County Courthouse in Augusta. A book titled Woodruff County Veterans: Stories and Memories of Service to One’s Country will also be released. It contains 48 stories written by veterans, their families and friends.

Memorial Day services will start at 2 p.m. Sunday at East Memorial Gardens in Miller County. A ceremony for fallen veterans will be at the cemetery, hosted by the Texarkana Area Veterans Council.

American Legion Post 25-58 will host a 30-minute service at the Miller County Courthouse’s Veterans Memorial on Monday at 11 a.m. A Memorial Walk will follow the service, from the courthouse to the Korean-Vietnam Memorial, at West Seventh Street and North State Line Avenue. A memorial service put on by the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 278 will be held at that location around 11:45 a.m.

Hillcrest Memorial Park on U.S. 67 west in Texarkana will host the final service at 1 p.m. Monday. A National Moment of Remembrance will follow at 3 p.m. across the country.

The Bradley County Veterans will host the annual wreath-laying ceremony at 10:15 a.m. Monday at the Bradley County Courthouse Square in Warren. The group will also host a Memorial Day program from 11 a.m. to noon at First Presbyterian Church at 212 E. Church St.

Retired Lt. Col. Hugh D. Mills Jr., one of the state’s most decorated veterans, will speak at his native Hot Springs at the Veterans Memorial at the local transportation depot and plaza at 100 Broadway Terrace at 2 p.m. Monday. Mills co-wrote a book about his Vietnam experiences titled Low Level Hell: A Scout Pilot in the Big Red One. A service sponsored by the Garland County Veterans Memorial Committee will be held in Mills’ honor from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Crestview, Greenwood and Memorial Gardens cemeteries will also feature “The Memorial Avenue of Flags.”

Mount Holly Cemetery board members, along with youth from First Methodist Church and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock, will be placing American flags on graves of more than 430 veterans buried at Mount Holly Cemetery at West 12th Street and South Broadway at noon Sunday. Maps and instructions will be available for volunteers. Parking will be available on the West 13th Street side of the cemetery and volunteers can enter through the side gate to meet at the Bell House. The first group will start placing flags at noon and the second at 12:30 p.m. Matilda Buchanan can be reached at (501)-375-7794 for more information.

Arkansas, Pages 20 on 05/25/2012

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