A walk to remember: Morrison’s Grove Hill Cemetery readied for Memorial Day

MORRISON – The dates on John W. Gridley’s gravestone in the northwest corner of Grove Hill Cemetery point to a life that started in 1899 and ended in 1918.

His gravestone also tells the story that during his short life, he served his country as a private in an aero squadron. His is one of 1,037 gravestones in Morrison’s Grove Hill Cemetery that marks where a veteran has been laid to rest.

To honor them, more than 50 volunteers walked the cemetery Saturday to place small American flags on the graves of 764 veterans known to be buried there. For a little more than an hour, their work – combined with Morrison Legion scholarship winner Cambell Buikema and her volunteers’ placement of 273 flags the day before – slowly turned the cemetery’s green and gray landscape into one dotted with red, white and blue.

It’s something Morrison American Legion Post 328 makes sure happens each year the Saturday before Memorial Day weekend as a way to honor all veterans and prepare the cemetery for its Memorial Day service.

On this particular Saturday, the Legion saw one of its largest turnouts of volunteers as Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Sauk Valley Community College’s Impact Program, Morrison High School Key Club students, MHS Legion Scholarship winners and local residents joined the Legionnaires to find and decorate the veterans’ graves.

“The American Legion, they are the sponsor of the Boy Scouts, and they have this down to a science to do 1,000 flags in an hour,” said volunteer Hillary Blevins, who was placing flags with her husband, Marshall; their son, who is a Boy Scout; and their daughter.

To make that happen, the 56 volunteers were separated into six groups, each led by a clipboard caller. The groups were sent to one of six designated regions in the cemetery. The caller, whose clipboard listed the veterans in that group’s section, shouts out the name of each veteran as the walking group nears the spot where that veteran is buried. As that grave is located, a volunteer places a flag in a holder at the gravesite while repeating the name back to the caller to make sure the placement was carried out and no veteran’s grave is missed.

It’s an annual event that has been happening for a few decades, said Jerry Brearton, the Morrison American Legion post’s finance officer and sergeant-at-arms. Brearton, a Navy veteran, was a clipboard caller leading a group of 14 volunteers responsible for about 275 graves.

“George Dykhuizen Sr.?”

“George Dykhuizen Jr.?”

“John Besse, Dave Vanderlaan, Thomas Parker, John Vandermyde?”

With each name Brearton called, a volunteer would respond: “Yep.” “Found him.” “Over here.” “Got ‘em.”

Brearton started taking part in the event about six or seven years ago. At that time, he organized the list of veterans and had the information entered digitally so the list would be easier to work with from one year to the next. The Legionnaires also add to the list when veterans are buried in the cemetery or when a volunteer spies a gravestone that indicates a veteran has not yet been identified for inclusion.

Hillary Blevins said this was the second year she had volunteered, and it is a great way to remember the veterans who served. She had found Gridley’s gravestone and pointed it out to her son, who was nearby.

“We are here to to get ready for the Memorial Day parade and ceremony that’s at the pavilion,” she said, referring to the parade that will begin at 10:30 a.m. Monday, May 27, march through downtown and then head up the hill to Grove Hill Cemetery. The remembrance ceremony, featuring speaker Larry Rice, will begin right after the parade.

The flags will remain in place for two weeks. That’s when the volunteers will come back, remove them and prepare them for storage. Some flags will need to have damaged dowels replaced in preparation for next year. Tattered flags will be properly burned during the Legion’s flag-burning ceremony in September.

Brearton said the Legion is grateful to all the people who helped.

“And we appreciate the veterans who served,” Brearton said. “That’s the reason we’re here.”