Solemn decoration: 6,000 crosses dot Henderson park for Memorial Day

HENDERSON, Ky. − They stand at attention in Henderson’s Central Park, the white crosses, arranged in ranks and columns, three feet apart.

Each cross, standing 32 inches tall, bears a name in black letters: A serviceman or servicewoman from Henderson County, now deceased, who served their country in one of the five branches of the military. To each cross is affixed a small American flag, flapping in the breeze.

This year there are 6,160 crosses in Central Park, but the number grows each year as more veterans pass away — some from the World War II era, some from the Korean War, some from the Vietnam War, some from conflicts in the Middle East, some who served in peacetime.

On the south side of the park, the crosses stretch for an entire city block, from South Main Street to South Elm Street. Along Main Street, they extend for about two-thirds of a block. There are so many that it really takes an aerial photograph to appreciate how many have been installed in preparation for Memorial Day.

If there is any community that matches the sheer number of crosses erected each year to honor its deceased veterans, Tom Davis, president of the board of the Henderson Veterans Memorial Foundation, doesn’t know of it.

“Of the magnitude of this, I’ve never heard of any community that can match us,” Davis said on a May afternoon when all but a few dozen of the crosses were in place.

It’s a tradition that began here at least as far back as 1935, for the observance of what was then known as Decoration Day. It gained steam starting in 1945, as World War II was drawing to a close. That year, the number of crosses totaled 286.

With rare exceptions, the mass display of crosses has been conducted every year since.

Then, as now, the tribute is the initiative of the American Legion Post 40 Honor Guard under its commander, Jim Hanley.

But it takes an army of volunteers from a host of organizations to turn out each year and make it happen: To lay out a grid, to secure plastic bases with steel nails to the ground, to insert custom-made plastic crosses — in alphabetical order, from James M. Abbey to John Zytka — into the bases, place a flag into the hole on top of each cross, then set artificial flowers — many colored red, white and blue — at the base of as many crosses as possible.

Those volunteers, in turn, are served sustenance by local restaurants that send coffee, donuts, sandwiches and pizza to fortify the workers.

The intent each year is to have the sprawling display in place by mid-May so family members and friends can visit the park, find their loved ones and pay their respects.

Two such people on a recent afternoon were Joyce Book, who came with her daughter Darla Daugherty to see the cross for Joyce’s late husband, Larry, who served in the Navy for four years during the Korean War era. Larry Book died in March 2023 at age 90.

His is among six Book crosses at the park, not counting an ancestor, Michael Book, who is memorialized by a Daughters of the American Revolution tablet at the corner of First and Main streets in honor of Revolutionary War soldiers who are buried in Henderson County.

“There’s so many people whose names you recognize (on the crosses), people you went to school with,” Joyce Book said.

“You just look out and see names,” Daughtery said. Thousands and thousands of names.

Day after day, people drift through the park, just to see a name they know, perhaps to leave flowers behind.

Some will drop by the park to hear American Legion Honor Guard member William “Sappy” Gastenveld play Taps at 6 p.m. each evening as long the crosses are on display.

Even more will gather for the Veterans Memorial Foundation’s annual Memorial Day service at the fountain in Central Park at 10 a.m. on Monday for Memorial Day.

The new master of ceremonies will be Henderson County’s Col. Heather Toews (U.S. Air Force, Retired), who was the keynote speaker last year. She will be succeeding beloved longtime emcee Col. Jim Smith (U.S. Army, Retired), who died April 29 after an illness. Expect a tribute to him at the ceremony.

The patriotic program will include an invocation, presentation of colors, a Missing Man Table and Ceremony, wreath placement by representatives of the five branches of service and musical selections by the Henderson County High School Band.

The keynote speaker will be Sarah W. Taylor of Henderson, past national president of the American Gold Star Mothers Inc. Her son, Army Specialist David Taylor, died in 2012 in an ammunition explosion while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Vocal musical selections will be performed by Keith Vincent and Leslie Hoskins. At a recent meeting of the Veterans Memorial Foundation, Davis said, “Keith was given a new song” that he performed for the committee.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” Davis said.

There will be a benediction, then a rifle salute by the American Legion’s Honor Guard, followed by Taps.

Then, solemnly, the crowd will disperse.

A week or so after Memorial Day, a multitude of volunteers will swoop in to dismantle the crosses that so many came to see. Flags and flowers will be removed and stored, crosses carefully cleaned and stored on racks in a pair of semi-trailers that will be hauled away and stored until next year, when Henderson County’s deceased veterans will be remembered again.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Solemn decoration: 6,000 crosses dot Henderson park for Memorial Day