50 pounds of coins fund a legacy

A Jackson man had been saving loose change for more than two decades.

Kenneth Detherage knows how pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters can add up after 25 years.

On Monday evening, the 85-year-old World War II veteran used the contents of his teddy bear bank to buy an engraved brick in the Cape Girardeau VFW Post 3838 Legacy Wall, the memorial outside the group's new building. Detherage said he doesn't know how much money was in the bank, but it weighed more than 50 pounds when he measured it on his bathroom scales. He said he and his wife have been sticking their loose change in the bank for the past 25 years.

"Just before I left, the wife put a few more in there, said she wanted to put the last ones in," he said.

Detherage, a retired police officer who lives in Jackson, said if the bank contains more than the $325 it costs to purchase a foot-square brick, he'll donate the rest of the money to the VFW. The VFW has offered to cover the difference if the bank doesn't contain enough money.

Detherage said he wanted to use his change to purchase a brick because he is proud of his service in World War II. He joined the Marines in 1939. At first he had wanted to join the Navy, but when he found out that he would have to stay in for six years instead of four, he walked across the hall of the recruiting station and signed up for the Marines.

After the war began, Detherage served in the Pacific theater. On Aug. 7, 1942, he landed on Guadalcanal, the first offensive of the war and the site of some of the heaviest fighting. He was wounded in the leg and the hip and was taken to a military hospital in Brisbane, Australia.

John Dragoni, chair of the VFW building fund committee, said the Legacy Wall is filled with names, and behind each name is a story just like Detherage's. Dragoni said the VFW is selling the bricks to pay for its new building, but it is also creating a place where people can go to remember.

"This is going to be a sort of shrine, where people can just come and stare at it forever," Dragoni said.

Detherage also is not the only one to donate his loose change, Dragoni said. Students from St. Vincent de Paul school collected $131 in change to purchase a brick, and another group took up a collection of loose change for a local veteran who had died to buy a brick in his name.

"I can go on and on about all acts of kindness committed by many people," Dragoni said.

The wall has 325 bricks at the moment, but another load is on its way. Dragoni said if the current wall fills up, the VFW plans to wrap it around the building.

wmcferron@semissourian.com