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Greenwood Cemetery remembers 108 veterans buried there

Messenger-Inquirer - 5/29/2022

May 29—For the 25th Memorial Day, veterans, political leaders and others gathered in Owensboro's historic Greenwood Cemetery to honor the 2,385 African Americans — 108 of them veterans — buried there.

The historic cemetery on Leitchfield Road had been neglected for decades until a group led by Wesley Acton of Pleasant Ridge managed to reclaim it in 1996.

The cemetery, founded on Leitchfield Road in 1906, had become overgrown through the years.

And by 1996, brush was so thick in some areas that historic headstones could barely be seen.

Debris covered many of the graves.

And many tombstones lay face down, partially buried in the dirt.

But that year, Acton led more than 150 volunteers — including members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Forrest's Orphans Camp — in reclaiming the cemetery.

Acton was the featured speaker at Saturday's Memorial Day service.

It took more than 200 volunteers more than five years to restore the cemetery to "dignity and respect," he said.

Acton said the roots of Memorial Day can be traced back to the days after the Civil War.

One of the first such observances, he said, was a ceremony held by freed slaves on May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Daviess Judge-Executive Al Mattingly acknowledged that America has a lot of problems.

But, he said, "I don't see people climbing fences and digging tunnels to get out of the country. They're doing that to get in."

Mattingly saluted Acton and the work done by the volunteers in the late 1990s.

Michael Johnson, a retired U.S. Navy chief and a candidate for state representative in Kentucky's13th House District, was the master of ceremonies.

He praised the veterans who "defended our country with honor, courage and commitment."

Johnson led the gathering in saying the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the national anthem.

At the end, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 696 honor guard fired a 21-gun salute for those who fought — and died — to keep America free.

And then the sounds of a bugle playing "Taps" drifted across the graves in the historic cemetery.

And the service ended.

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com

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