Every May in Henderson, men, women and children can be seen roaming the city’s Central Park—some searching, some carrying flowers, most carrying memories of departed loved ones.
They walk among dozens of rows of white crosses, more than 6,000 of them, each bearing the name of a Henderson County resident who served our country in the military and has since died, some in combat and many in the years after their military service.
It is a generations-old tradition in this Western Kentucky city on the Ohio River. Local lore, passed down by the late James E. “Snoz” Davis—a World War II and Korean War Army veteran and longtime member of the American Legion Worsham Post 40’s color guard—was that just a dozen crosses were erected at the first Memorial Day service in Henderson.
The earliest newspaper account unearthed by Henderson Gleaner history columnist Frank Boyett came from 1935, announcing the American Legion’s plans for a tribute on Decoration Day, before “Memorial Day” became the generally accepted term for that day of remembrance in late May. That service in Central Park included an unspecified number of crosses with the names of Henderson servicemen killed during World War I.
Boyett also located press accounts of the Legion’s Decoration Day service in 1941 for which white crosses were to be erected for each WWI veteran killed in service as well as a large cross to represent those who died in other conflicts, including the American Revolution, Civil War and Spanish-American War. The Legion organized a similar service in 1942, but the observances reportedly ceased for the duration of the Second World War.
Then in 1945, the Memorial Day service was revived. Two bands led the largest parade in Henderson in years to Central Park. There, 286 white crosses, “one for each of Henderson County’s war dead who died in World War I and II and those veterans who have passed away since World War I,” had been erected. A former Army infantry lieutenant, who had been honorably discharged because of combat wounds, delivered the principal address. A squad of riflemen fired a volley, Taps were played, and a benediction was said. Following that, the crosses were decorated with flags. The entire service was broadcast on WSON-AM, the local radio station.
With that, the display of white crosses in Henderson’s Central Park for Memorial Day became a beloved annual tradition.
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Over most of that history, the crosses were wooden and handmade. “I started in 1962 when I was 11 years old,” Snoz Davis’ son Tom recalled. The youngster used a stencil to help paint the names of deceased veterans on crosses in the basement of the local Legion hall.
“I used to make them in my shop class” at South Middle School, recalled Col. Jim Smith (U.S. Army, Retired), who served as a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. In those days, he noted, “They took a sledge and hammered them in the ground. After two years, they’d be frayed, and we’d have to make new ones.”
Over time, members of the American Legion Worsham Post aged, and the organization’s funds ran short. Around 1995, the Henderson Veterans Memorial Foundation “stepped in and said, ‘We’ll pay for it,’” said Ken Christopher, who served as a sergeant in Vietnam and has been active with the foundation and the Memorial Day service for many years.
One day around 2000, Jim Hanley—who became a Marine in 1967 and served in Vietnam in 1969—dropped by the American Legion hall. “I was sitting in here and heard a guy [who had been involved in erecting the thousands of crosses each May] say, ‘I’ve had enough. I quit,’” Hanley said. “It kind of hit me—why give that up? So, I got involved.” Hanley has been leading the cross program ever since.
Meanwhile, the issue of having to replace wooden crosses every year or two continued. “My dad was a World War II Navy veteran,” Hendersonian Dave Morris said. “He’d take us down to the memorial. In 2003, we watched them set up. They were breaking more than they were getting in the ground. Dad said, ‘Isn’t there something you can do to help?’”
There was. Dave and his brother, Richard, ran Morris Tool & Plastic Inc. in Henderson. “Over the next year, we brainstormed,” Dave said. and eventually, they settled on molding two-piece plastic injection-molded crosses that could be glued together. Thanks to donations of labor and materials by Morris Tool and others, more than 3,000 crosses were given to the American Legion at no cost in 2006, with additional crosses manufactured each year for newly deceased veterans. The crosses stand 32 inches tall and are 16 inches wide, with a hole on top to accommodate a small American flag on a wooden pole. The name of a deceased veteran in black letters is applied to each cross through a vinyl transfer by a local company called Sign Design.
“My only regret is that Dad didn’t live to see it come to fruition,” Dave said.
Initially, steel stakes were driven into the ground and a cross affixed to each stake. Then in about 2010, Morris Tool produced plastic bases with nail prongs that could be pressed easily into the ground to hold each cross upright.
The logistics of storing, laying out and erecting crosses each year is planned like a military campaign, and it takes a small army to carry it out. “It’s not a one-man show,” Morris said.
The crosses are stored in a pair of semi-trailers donated by a local chemical distributor. They are placed in alphabetical order inside the trailers on racks made from donated steel electrical conduit or angle iron.
Each spring, women from a local addiction recovery center carefully clean each cross and add new crosses to the mix. A Henderson trucking company moves the semi-trailers into place beside Central Park. American Legion members Bob Skaggs and George Tillotson lay out a grid for placing the crosses three feet apart. The women from the recovery center place the bases into the ground, and several local restaurants donate coffee, doughnuts and meals to feed the workers.
A fork truck unloads racks of crosses from the trailers, and students from North Middle School are bused over to insert the crosses into the bases while double-checking that they are in alphabetical order. “It takes two days, if the weather’s good,” Hanley said. The crosses go up about three weeks before Memorial Day and stay up until a week after. Members of the Ladies Auxiliary of the American Legion affix a small flag to the top of each cross.
This year, for the first time, the Traveling Kentucky Vietnam Memorial Wall will come to Henderson May 25-27. It bears the names of more than 1,100 Kentuckians killed in action during the Vietnam War, held as prisoners of war, or still missing in action.
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On the morning of each Memorial Day, the Henderson Veterans Memorial Foundation presents a formal program. A typical program includes prayers, the Missing Man Table and Ceremony, presentation of colors, the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, wreath placements for each branch of service, a featured guest speaker, patriotic music, a rifle salute and the playing of Taps.
The ceremony incorporates a broad swath of participants: the American Legion Post 40 Honor Guard, the local high school’s band and Army Junior ROTC, members of the Veterans Memorial Foundation, a Shriners’ Legion of Honor, representatives of each branch of the military, a pastor and more.
On May 27, the keynote speaker will be Sarah Taylor, past president of the American Gold Star Mothers Inc., whose son, Army Specialist David Taylor, 82nd Airborne, was killed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on March 29, 2012.
“What a wonderful opportunity it is for the community and the whole tri-state to come here and see such a beautiful memorial, and, if they have someone [memorialized with a cross], to go see their name,” Taylor said. “And teach children about honor and respect and sacrifice and what Memorial Day is all about.”
“We have a lot of people come to the program downtown,” Smith said. “We don’t have chairs for them all. They bring their own chairs.
“I think this community is a patriotic community. They appreciate this.”
After Memorial Day, the crosses are taken down as carefully as they were put up. Members of the Henderson County High School boys soccer team remove the crosses in alphabetical order and return them to their racks, while women from the recovery center retrieve the plastic bases. They are all stowed away carefully for next year.
Veterans Memorial Foundation members, who include several veterans, suspect that a few World War II veterans from Henderson, undoubtedly around age 100, are still alive. But they note that the number of living veterans from the Korean War and even the Vietnam War is declining. Each year, more crosses go up.
“This town loves its veterans,” Hanley, the Legion’s cross organizer, said.
And though he’s now 77, he said, “I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.”