AREA POISED TO HONOR VETERANS; NUMBER OF VETERANS DAY ACTIVITIES SCHEDULED BY COMMUNITIES

One of the largest Veterans Day parades in Illinois, consisting of about 200 units, will be held at Anna this afternoon. Parades, avenues of flags, and other programs are scheduled throughout the area as the nation honors its war dead and living veterans on Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day.

A parade will also be held at Jackson prior to a Veterans Day program to be held at the American Legion Hall. An avenue of flags will be presented in Bollinger County and special Veterans Day programs are also scheduled at Advance and Mound City, Ill. Memorial Park.

Federal, state, county and municipal offices, banks and financial institutions will be closed today.

The display of the Avenue of the Flags provided annually at Cape County Park has been canceled due to inclement weather.

"We can't take the chance of getting 411 flags wet and drying them out," explained Calvin Vogelsang, a spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3838.

The Avenue of the Flags is co-sponsored on patriotic holidays by the VFW and the Cape Girardeau County Commission.

The Anna parade, the largest event of its kind in the state, will start forming at Anna City Park at 1 p.m. and will start at 2 p.m. from the park, marching to Anna-Jonesboro High School.

The parade, sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Carroll P. Foster Post 2455 of Anna, will consist of bands, floats, drill teams, marching units and other entries, said Chester Spears, event chairman.

Bob Poshard, director of the Illinois Department of Veteran Affairs, will be special guest at the parade, along with Eddie Griffith, VFW state junior vice commander.

The Jackson parade will form at the Jackson High School Music Building and move through the uptown business district to the American Legion Hall at Mary and North Hope. The parade marshal is Ora Hopkins of the American Legion Auxiliary Post 158.

Units in the parade include, Company A (based in Jackson) of the 1140th Combat Engineer Battalion, MIssouri Army National Guard; an ROTC unit from Southeast Missouri State University; the Jackson, Meadow Heights and Oak Ridge bands; a number of Girl and Boy Scout units, Pearl Harbor Survivors, Motorcycle Club, and the Jackson and Millersville fire departments.

Gilbert E. Sewing, a member of American Legion Post 158, will be guest speaker at Jackson. The presentation of the colors will be by the American Legion Honor Guard. The National Anthem will be sung by the New McKendree Methodist Church Choir. The invocation will be given by the VFW chaplain, Emil Brase.

Sewing, a World War II veteran from Jackson, served with the 149th Combat Engineer Battalion in England, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany from 1943 to 1945. He participated in the assault landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson and retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charles Woodford, both of Cape Girardeau, will be keynote speakers at a dedication of an Avenue of Flags at the Cape Girardeau Veterans Home at 2 p.m. Welcoming remarks will be made by Robert Buckner, executive director of the Missouri Veterans Commission in Jefferson City.

Julia Cowsert of the Cape Girardeau Jaycees and Avenue of Flags project director, said the Avenue of Flags will consist of 35 American flags that will be flown around the center court of the Veterans Home on patriotic occasions and holidays. "They will be highly visible to passing motorists on Interstate 55 and Highway 61," Cowsert said. "The flags were donated for this project by Congressman Emerson and Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond."

An Avenue of Flags will be on display at the Bollinger County Memorial Park Cemetery about a mile and a half south of Marble Hill.

"We have 40 or 50 flags on display," said Faye Garland of Liley Funeral Home in Marble Hill. Garland said the flags are displayed on several holidays during the year, including Memorial Day and Fourth of July. "This is the last Avenue of Flags display this year."

Veterans from several wars will present brief remarks during a program today at Advance. Lyman Zimmerman, a veteran of World War I, will place flowers on the Veterans Memorial in Advance City Park.

He will also talk about World War I. Other speakers during the program include Lewis Ingram, a World War II veterans; Paul Lanpher, Korean conflict; and Mike Bird, Vietnam. Two veterans from the area were involved in the Persian Gulf action but were unable to attend the program. Bill Holder will make remarks for the two veterans.

The programs starts at 11 a.m. with the presentation of the colors by Advance VFW Post 7750. The Advance High School band will provide music for the program and Mayor Kenny Emerson will welcome the crowd.

The Advance Veterans Memorial, which contains names of local people who have served in the military, was dedicated on Memorial Day as a "seven-tablet" (monument) memorial.

"We ran out of space," said James Harnes, a member of the 17-person committee that planned the original "seven-tablet" memorial. "We have added two new tablets since May, and now have a total of nine." The center tablet is 7 feet tall, 4 feet wide, and 8 inches thick. The eight other monuments are 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide.

A Veterans Day service will be conducted at Mound City Memorial Park today at 10:30 a.m.

Speakers for the Mound City program will include Mound City Mayor Fred M. Winkler and Meridian School Superintendent Sam Harbin. Wayne Cartner will be master of ceremonies.

Essays prepared by the senior English class of Alsandra Lewis at Meridian will be read, and the school band will play patriotic selections.

VFW Post 7644 and American Legion Post 178 will conduct the flag-raising ceremony, and the Mound City Women's Club will place the wreaths.

License fee offices at Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Chaffee will be closed today. There will be no driver examinations given today at Charleston.

There will be no solid-waste pickup today in Jackson, Cape Girardeau and Scott City. However, today's commercial pickup route will run in Chaffee.

The Jackson landfill will be closed, but the Jackson Library will be open today. The Jackson Chamber of Commerce office will also be closed.