By Roscoe Barnes III
The Natchez Democrat
Published 2:02 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, 2024
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| Karla Brown of Downtown Karla Brown and her volunteers visit Natchez National Cemetery on Memorial Day to honor military service members by placing flowers on their graves. Flags are placed on the graves by the Natchez National Cemetery staff and volunteers. (Photo courtesy of Karla Brown) |
NATCHEZ, Miss. --Several programs will be held this Memorial Day weekendthrough which local residents and visitors can honor the men and women who paidthe ultimate price while serving in the U.S. military.
Commemorative programs will be held in Natchez andVidalia.
These programs include a fundraising dinner, patrioticceremonies and the placing of flags and flowers on the graves of those who diedin military service.
These events, which will start on Friday, will lead tothe 158th Annual Miss-Lou Memorial Day Parade set for Monday, May 27.
Friday, May 24
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Friday, May 24, Point ManInternational Ministries will serve jambalaya plate lunches at 270 Front St.
These plates are a fundraiser for the Cost of FreedomTribute Memorial that will be built on the Vidalia riverfront. The cost perplate is $15.
The VFW Post 9573 will provide the food preparation. Theevent is organized by Army Vietnam veteran Douglas McCallister.
As noted in the March 3, story in The Natchez Democrat,the memorial will “be an 80 percent scale replica of the Vietnam VeteransMemorial Wall in Washington, D.C., 360 feet long and 8 feet tall at the apex,except the memorial would include the names of casualties and tributes to thoseinvolved in Iraq, Afghanistan, 9/11, World War I and World War II and Koreanwars in addition to Vietnam.”
McCallister said Memorial Day is a special time of theyear: “It is a time that we might consider that you haven’t lived until you’vealmost died. And for those who fought for it – freedom – they have a flavor theprotected will never know.”
The public may also visit the Miss-Lou Military Museumand Veteran’s Welcome Center from 9 to 12:30 p.m. on Friday. The museum is located at 107 Jefferson DavisBlvd. Admission to the museum is free to the public.
Saturday, May 25
Starting at 8 a.m. Saturday, May 25, the Natchez NationalCemetery will honor military service members by placing flags on each of theirgraves.
This is an annual tradition that is done with the help ofvolunteers through the cemetery’s Pre-Memorial Day Program, said Caleb Ray,cemetery technician.
Volunteers typically consist of groups from the NatchezFire Department, Girl Scouts, Natchez High School’s AF JROTC and the AdamCounty Sheriff Office Trustees, all of whom are supervised by the cemeterystaff, Ray said.
Charlotte Taylor, the assistant director of theMississippi National Cemetery Complex at Natchez, said that after Memorial Day,volunteers will be needed to retrieve the flags on Saturday, June 1, beginningat 8 a.m.
Also on Saturday, at 11 a.m., a Memorial Day ceremonywill be held at 270 Front St. in Vidalia to honor the 13 U.S. service memberskilled in action in Afghanistan during the United States’ pullout from thecountry. Retired Army Sgt. Major Kasie King of Jonesville, La., will be theguest speaker, according to McCallister.
Monday, May 27
For several years now, Karla Brown of Downtown KarlaBrown has visited the Natchez National Cemetery on Memorial Day to honormilitary service members by placing flowers on their graves.
She will do it this year at 6:30 a.m. on Monday, May 27and she is looking for volunteers to assist her.
“I buy up all the flowers at Walmart and the grocerystores,” she said. “I put them in a bucket full of water and early the nextmorning, I put one flower in front of the graves. I don’t have enough flowersto do every grave. It would be a wonderful dream to put a flower on everygrave.”
In a recent Facebook post, Brown said that each year shewould place the flowers “very randomly” on the graves until she ran out. “Ijust always made sure I covered all the wars and all the branches of services,”she wrote.
When people learned of her project, they donated “bucketsof flowers,” and some of them served as volunteers, Brown said.
One of the volunteers in 2023 included Harper Willis ofGirl Scout Troop 3745.
She noted that she and her volunteers, some of whom areveterans, are careful to not rush through the cemetery. “We put the flowers infront of the graves and stand back,” she said. “We look at the grave andreflect on the person and their service to our country before we move on to thenext grave.”
For Brown, it is important to start early on Memorial Daybecause of the many activities scheduled for the cemetery on that day.
“We set the flowers at the graves very early in themorning, at 6:30am,” she said. “Yes, it might be early, but can you honestlythink of a better way to start Memorial Day off than by setting a beautifulflower or rose in front of a veterans grave early in the morning? Ican’t.”
Anyone interested in assisting Brown as a volunteer orwho wishes to make a donation for the purchase of flowers may contact her at907-540-0001.
The Miss-Lou Memorial Day Parade will be held Monday, May27. The lineup will begin at 8 a.m. at Zion Baptist Church at 601 MagnoliaStreet in Vidalia.
At 9 a.m., the parade will start at the foot of theLouisiana side of the bridge. It will proceed across the bridge to the NatchezVisitor Center at 640 S. Canal St. and from there to the Natchez NationalCemetery at 41 Cemetery Road, where the 11 a.m. ceremony will be held.
Read more at:https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2024/05/21/memorial-day-weekend-programs-announced-for-natchez-and-vidalia/
