Those who laid down their lives in the line of duty and veterans who have since passed away were remembered in a Memorial Day service at Restland Cemetery in Silo, where there are many veterans interred.
The flag was raised by members of local veterans’ organizations and motorcycle clubs.
Gary McLarry spoke and he gave a history of Memorial Day which first began with freed slaves remembering the fallen in 1865 after the Civil War.
“It started off called the Decoration Day,” McLarry said. “I believe the first time was a group of freed slaves in South Carolina that gathered in 1865 to lay flowers on the gravesites of their loved ones who died in the war. It continued until 1968 it was declared a day but it didn’t become an official day until 1971.”
Memorial Day is on the last Monday of May every year.
“The reason they did it that time of year way back was because that’s when all of the flowers were blooming,” McLarry said. “They had plenty of flowers at that time to lay on graves.”
McLarry said everyone knows someone who passed away during a war. McLarry’s great-uncle was Raymond Leon Mayo, who was one of the commanders of the USS Grayback SS-208 submarine that sunk on Feb. 27, 1944, during a Japanese aircraft attack. The wreckage was discovered in 2019.
“So that’s the reason that we gather is to remember those and it’s good to remember and it’s evolved into remembering our loved one who have passed since,” he said. “We remember them and we’re thankful for them.”
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