Perry County Military History Museum's Wall of Honor will be dedicated April 12

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The heroism of four Army soldiers who perished in the Vietnam War will be memorialized during the April 12 dedication of the Perry County Military History Museum's new Wall of Honor in Perryville City Park.

The soldiers are Raymond Fordyce, who died in 1966; Gary Ernst, a casualty of the fighting in 1967; and Thomas Loos and Darrell Lintner, who died in 1968.

Farmington, Mo., artist Kevin Hale has completed a four-by-four-foot black granite centerpiece, featuring photos of the soldiers in battle fatigues, in the newly erected 12-by-20-foot wall that holds plaques engraved with the names of servicemen and servicewomen with Perry County ties. The wall is made of cultured stone supplied by Semco Stone of Perryville and built by local contractor Duane Ernst, Gary Ernst's brother. Brewer Monument of Perryville did the engraving.

Planning for the wall began at the about the same time volunteers from Perryville and elsewhere in Perry County began meeting to try to get the ball rolling to create a military museum, which was the brainchild of Nancy Moore, longtime historian with the Perry County Historical Society. The museum opened in late 2011 with 20,000 military artifacts -- uniforms, helmets, photographs, letters, munitions, medals and more -- that had been stored at the Perry County Historical Society museum and other locations. The items were donated to the museum by local veterans and their families.

"We went to the mayor [Perryville Mayor Debbie Gahan] and Kate Martin, who was with the [Republic-Monitor] newspaper, and got the room that the Catholic seminary had had a museum in," said Moore, of Perryville, referring to the Perryville Higher Education Center on the grounds of what had been a seminary.

Items inside the Perry County Military History Museum inside the Perryville Higher Education Center are seen Wednesday. (Laura Simon)

Moore said Mike Lundy and his wife Vickie, the military museum's treasurer, and John and Carlene Rauh, its president and secretary, have been instrumental in fundraising for and creating the Wall of Honor. She said the spaces for veterans' names sell for $300, $500 and $1,000 and the pavers in front of the wall are being sold for $125 and $135.

The military museum, on the second floor of the higher education center at 108 S. Progress Drive, has permanent exhibits commemorating veterans going back to the Civil War.

"We have the World War II [flying] aces, Charles Tucker and Ray Littge, although most of Ray's things are at the [Lutheran Heritage Center and] museum in Altenburg because he was from there," Moore said.

Lundy, board vice president, said a section of the museum many visitors find interesting is the one devoted to Lt. Col. Charles Weber, who commanded Company C of the 47th Infantry Regiment of the Missouri State Guard during the Civil War. Weber became Perryville's first mayor. His black powder shotgun is part of the display.

Lundy said he expects several hundred people to participate in the 10 a.m. April 12 dedication of the wall, which lists more than 250 Perry County veterans from most of America's wars.

Items inside the Perry County Military/History Museum inside the Perryville Higher Education Center. (Laura Simon)

"It is very impressive," Lundy said of the wall. "It's beautiful."

The Wall of Honor is near the city park entrance off Sainte Marie Street on the east side of Perryville, which is 37 miles north of Cape Girardeau, east of Interstate 55.

Lundy said much more is known about Ernst, Loos and Lintner than Fordyce, who had grown up in Perryville after being adopted by Mr. and Mrs. H.W. Bartholomew.

Noting that Fordyce was a career soldier who was a prisoner of war in Korea, Lundy said, "We would really like to contact some of his relatives and have them participate in the dedication.

"His widow moved away, we think to Scott City, with their daughters, Jacqueline, 13, and Ave Marie, 6."

More information is available by calling Lundy at 573-768-6966 or visiting perrycountymilitarymuseum.yolasite.com.